City tables bids for automated trash pickup system

Seymour city officials received the first indication of how much it might cost to switch to an automated trash pickup collection system Thursday morning.

That's when Dick Wilde, the city's director of public works, opened three bids for two new trucks and 8,000 96-gallon containers needed to make the system work.

The city has been looking at the idea of implementing an automated trash pickup system for several months.

The bids were tabled Thursday for review.

Wilde originally estimated it would cost $1.4 million to put the program in effect.

He also has said the move could save the city as much as $49,000 a year by eliminating part-time help, replacing packer trucks every 10 years instead of every three years and allowing city workers now riding on packers to chip yard waste into mulch. The city now pays a private contractor to do that work.

Three workers also intend to leave the city this year.

Just two bids included the new trucks needed to implement the system.

Those were received from Pyramid Equipment of Rolling Prairie with a bid of $401,200; and Best Equipment of Indianapolis, with a bid of $564,804.52.

Bids for the containers were Pyramid, $401,200; Best Equipment, $476,000; and Lincoln Environment, $404,640.

The bids were taken under advisement so they can be reviewed.

A fourth bid was rejected because it arrived five minutes after the 11 a.m. deadline for receiving bids.

City Councilman Jim Lucas, who is not a member of the board of works, questioned the board and city attorney Rodney Farrow about why the late bid couldn't be checked to see how it stacks up with the others because those varied so widely.

"It wouldn't be fair to the other bidders," Farrow said. Lucas said the unopened bid may contain lower bids and help save taxpayers money.

After the meeting, Clerk-treasurer Fred Lewis said the city has never taken bids that arrive late.