LG Council Talks Trash, Beefhead Ditch
The La Grange City Council voted 6-1 Monday night, Sept. 27, to approve a new five-year contract with Waste Management, the company that provides garbage and recycling services in the City.
Council did not seek any bids from Waste Management’s competitors, which Councilman Quenten Gonzalez cited as his reason for casting the lone dissenting vote.
“On principal, I didn’t want to blindly spend our City money,” Gonzalez said after the meeting. “They are increasing our rates without a comparison. What is the competition charging? I would have liked to see bids.”
At the Council’s last meeting on Sept. 13, a representative from Texas Disposal Systems, Waste Management’s main competitor in this area, asked the Council to entertain bids. At least one other garbage service company operates in the area as well. City Manager Shawn Raborn said he favored keeping Waste Management due to the City’s long positive relationship with the company. He said Waste Management was instrumental in helping the City clean up flood damage after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Moreover, he said the company’s local driver knows the area very well and rarely misses a scheduled pickup.
“I know we have a great relationship with (Waste Management), and that means something,” Gonzalez said on Monday. “But I just want to know, are we close? Are we in the ballpark or are we being gouged?”
Under the terms of the new contract with Waste Management, residential customers will see a three percent increase in rates in January 2022. Commercial customers will see a slight rate increase in October of this year and then remain unchanged through November 2023.
The contract caps rate increases at five percent annually. Waste Management says it will base future rate increases on Jan. 1 of each following year based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation indices (specifically the Garbage/Trash Index along with the #2 diesel component of the Producer Price Index).
Waste Management said it will “re-brand” all of the collection carts in the City.
“They won’t all be brand new carts, but they will look new,” said Raborn.
Councilwoman Bonnie Busch was absent from the meeting.
Beefhead Ditch
In other business at Monday’s meeting, Council voted to accept a bid for the Beefhead Ditch drainage project. The project involves replacing the ditch with an underground drainage channel. Council re-bid the project last month after receiving only one submission from Hlavinka Construction of East Bernard. Hlavinka’s bid at that time was $824,811, nearly twice the engineer’s initial estimate. This time, the City received two bids for the project one from Hlavinka for $809,629 and another from South Central Texas Excavation for $487,958.32.
Council voted unanimously to award the bid to the low bidder, South Central Texas Excavation.
Tourism Grants
Council also voted unanimously Monday to approve four tourism grants recommended by the Tourism Grant Committee. The Council awarded the following grants:
• $6,000 to the Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center for the Heritage Fest and Muziky,
• $5,000 to Friends of Monument Hill for the Trail of Lights,
• $4,200 to the Texas Heroes Museum, and
• $2,500 to the Texas Quilt Museum.
The tourism grant fund balance now stands at $361,372. Tourism grants are funded by hotel occupancy taxes collected within the City of La Grange. In general, grant funds may only be used for projects that attract tourists to La Grange. Councilwoman Kathy Weishuhn, who chairs the tourism grant committee, said organizations receiving the grants must show receipts for expenses before funds are released.