After the town turned away from its longtime recyclables hauler due to difficulty with the Stamford-based company, municipal officials last week approved a new contract with the same company for disposal of brush and construction debris.
At $137,400 per year, City Carting came back with the lowest bid for the work because they “want back in,” according to New Canaan Department of Public Works Assistant Superintendent of Solid Waste Don Smith.
“They know they made a mistake,” Smith told members of the Board of Selectmen at their June 23 meeting, held via videoconference.
“It’s the management that is the problem but actually the people that I deal with it’s not their fault it’s the ones above them that have caused major issues so they are trying to get back into the good side of things” Smith said.
He added, “The lower guys are trying to make up for what the people up top have done, basically, just by ignoring us.”
He referred to an issue that surfaced last year, where town officials said New Canaan was paying $85 per ton on recyclables while Wilton was paying $65 per ton for similar services. Smith said in January that he’d been unable to reach City Carting to get an explanation for the discrepancy, and in April the town turned to a Danbury-based hauler.
For the new contract, Smith said the town received four bids between $137,000 and $167,000. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the contract.
Asked why the fee has risen, Smith said the carting companies “are all having bigger overhead.”