After more than two months’ discussion, the Brookshire City Council has turned thumbs-down to a proposal from the city’s solid waste provider to switch over to an automated collection system.
The rejection of the proposal from Republic Waste Services, Brookshire’s contract solid waste company, came during the city council meeting Thursday night.
The council made the decision with little discussion; however, the proposal received extensive discussion during a special joint workshop last week between the city and the Brookshire Municipal Water District.
During the workshop, Republic Waste Division Manager David Aguilar told the council and the water district that his company would need to have its contract with the city extended in order to switch over to the automated system. This was the first time Aguilar had publicly tied the change – which he first proposed to city council last December – to an extension of the contract.
Linking the automated service to a contract extension appeared to take council members by surprise. Mayor Joey Vaughn said he thought the changeover would be a part of the current agreement.
“I thought the price (to change to automated service) was for the current year contract,” Vaughn told Aguilar.
Aguilar said the company had spent more than $100,000 to purchase automated collection carts and would need the three-year extension to recoup their investment.
“If council does not extend the contract, Republic will not be able to automate all the carts in the city,” Aguilar said.
During a number of meetings over recent months, Aguilar touted the automated system as being beneficial to the company because it requires only one person to operate the collection truck, as opposed to the current two. Having all the trash contained in the 96-gallon carts would also help beautify the city, he added.
During none of the public discussions prior to last week’s workshop did Aguilar say the company would require the city to extend its contract to receive the automated service.
During Thursday’s meeting, the mayor asked if any council member wanted to further discuss the proposal. No one spoke up.
After a moment of silence, Council Member Kim Branch made a motion to not extend the contract. That motion passed on a 4-0 vote.
Council Member Marilyn Vaughn was not present for the meeting.
