Morgan City looks at a new method for trash pickup

Reworking Morgan City’s trash pickup by leasing trucks two years at a time, the city can save almost $500,000 per year, Mayor Lee Dragna told the City Council on Tuesday.
The council also heard complaints about inadequate service from the current contractor, Republic Services.
Dragna presented a preliminary plan for discussion. While no action was taken and there still is more work to be done, Dragna said after calculating revenues and expenditures, a $489,480 profit could be realized per year for the city through leasing. That figure does not include inflation, other sanitation department costs and environmental regulatory costs.
Dragna said the city receives a lot of complaints daily about garbage, and Public Works Director Mike Loupe approached him about the garbage pickup situation. A plan suggested by Dragna was to secure quotes for trucks for 24 months.
“We turn them in, and we get new ones after 24 months,” he said. “We don’t want to do any repairs. If something breaks, it’s under warranty, they fix it.”
The expenses in the preliminary plan presented total $556,000, while revenues are about $1.045 million, leaving a balance of $489,480.
The city could use $230,000-plus of the profit to purchase new garbage cans or charge a certain amount per dollar to customers for the current cans, Dragna said.
With remaining profit, Dragna proposed leasing a street sweeper as well to keep trash out of drainage pipes. Those expenses would equal about $100,000.
The remaining money could be used in the recreation department, he said.
The city used a quote from Heil Environmental, whose trucks they have used, in its preliminary presentation Tuesday and said they are awaiting a quote from Pelican Waste and Solutions.
Loupe said Heil would inspect the trucks every 60 days and make any repairs.
The move is in response to complaints about the current provider, Republic Services.
“They have missed the whole south end of the tracks at one time,” Loupe said. “We had to use our personnel going back there to pick the whole neighborhood.”
He also said he has requested cans from Republic Services to replace broken ones, and he hasn’t received them. Instead, they have to take parts from one source to replace others.
Councilman Mark Stephens said he did some research Tuesday, primarily focused around cities between 7,000 and 13,000, which is around Morgan City’s population, and those he consulted didn’t do their own garbage pickup and didn’t want to get into the business because of the expense.
“They said, ‘if there was that much money to be made in that, we would all be doing it because we’re all looking for funding,’” Stephens said.
He said he’s not totally opposed to Dragna’s plan, he just said other numbers not included in the data council members were given affect the profit, and he also thinks the city needs to really think about things before making any changes.
Councilman Lou Tamporello said while the city is coming off a busy collection time with Christmas, he said that if they are having that many complaints, they should meet with Republic Services while also considering the leasing option, too. Dragna said they will schedule a meeting with Republic Services.
In other action, the council:
—Heard from Finance Director Deborah Garber that the city finished the year with a favorable variance of $236,000 in its general and ancillary fund, an unfavorable variance of $85,788 in its utility fund and a favorable variance of $40,000 in its Sanitation and Sewer Fund.
Garber also noted that in comparing the city’s totals from what it originally budgeted, Morgan City projected a $404,000 loss in the original budget in its general and ancillary funds, but they finished the year with an income of $113,000. In the utility Fund, a net income of $354,000 was projected, and the year concluded with a $7,000 loss, while in the Sanitation and Sewer Fund, a net income of $176,000 was projected, and Morgan City concluded the year at about that amount.
—Heard a report from Morgan City Harbor and Terminal District Executive Director Raymond “Mac” Wade on the port’s progress.
His report included data on dredging in Berwick Bay and work ongoing and scheduled further down river as well as the success at the port’s tenant, InterMoor.
—Heard from the Rev. Ron Bias, in celebrating Black History Month, about firsts among African Americans in Morgan City.
He said that Mayor Joshua Thomas was the first African American mayor, who served briefly during Recons-truction; William Bradford was the first African American to serve on the City Council; Michael Banks was the Morgan City Police Department’s first African American police chief; Betty Augman is the first African American female to reach the rank of captain in the Morgan City Police Department; while Glenda Howard Hasley, a lieutenant in the police department, was the first African American woman and Bias thought the first female to reach that rank; Richard Anderson was the first African American fire chief in the Morgan City, while Roland Turner was the city’s first sanitation director.