At the suggestion of Commissioner Mark Hosty, the village council voted Monday to table until May 12 a bid from Allied Waste/Republic of Melrose Park, which staff and the village’s environmental engineering consultants had recommended for a five-year contract. Allied has had the waste-hauling contract for years.
Hosty said the village’s inconsistent policies on trash pickup at the multi-unit condo buildings were complicating the price suggested by the five companies bidding for the contract. Condominium buildings have, in the past, been able to contract privately for waste removal, Hosty said. But village codes said condo buildings must use the village residential hauler, pointed out Attorney Nick Peppers and Phil Kowalski, an engineer affiliated with the West Cook Solid Waste Agency (WCSWA).
Nonetheless, even though the village sent out requests for proposals in October 2013 and received five bids, and even though the bids were analyzed by WCSWA and village staff, Hosty said he supported setting up another RFP that addressed the issues of condominium waste disposal.
The contract would have provided a free 64-gallon recycling bin and free recycling to every home and small multi-unit address in Forest Park. Currently, residents pay an additional charge to recycle.
Allied’s Rich Vandermolen was shocked the village did not accept the bid. He said the prices he had offered were now public.
“You can only give your best price once,” he said, adding that he thought he had been participating in a “fair process.”
“I’m sort of at a loss for words,” he said.
