A relatively sparse group of Gillespie residents attended a “town meeting” Tuesday night at City Hall to to learn more about the city’s plan to sign semi-exclusive contracts with two trash hauling companies to operate within the city.

The city council is expected to take action next month on whether or not to sign semi-exclusive five-year contracts with Republic Services and DC Waste and Recycling in exchange for the companies providing a city-wide clean-up day.

The proposal on the table calls for Republic and DC Waste to charge customers $24 per month for trash hauling services for the next two years. Both companies agreed to charge $8 for each additional container, and both companies will be responsible for their own billing and collections. 

Both companies have their own schedules for senior citizen discounts. DC Waste offers recycling services for an additional $17 per month.

Questions and comments from the eight people attending the town hall meeting focused on recycling services and how the city might enforce a city ordinance requiring trash hauling services for all residents.

For consumers in Gillespie “nothing will change,” Ald. Dona Rauzi told the group. “No one will have to change their contract and no one will have to change companies. But what they’re agreed to is to do a city-wide clean-up.” 

The city council had suspended city-wide clean-ups because of the cost of renting dumpsters for the weekend. Under the new contracts, both companies will pick up refuse from the curb on a designated weekend. 

Rauzi said dates for the clean-up days have not yet been determined.

Rauzi told the group that the proposed plan emerged over the past five months after residents complained on social media about the lack of a clean-up day in the city. 

“Our biggest concern was finding a way to have a city-wide clean-up day,” Rauzi noted.

Several surrounding communities have exclusive trash hauling contracts and add a trash hauling fee to residents’ water bills—a measure Mayor Landon Pettit opposed.

“No one should have their water turned off because they didn’t pay their trash bill,” he said. “That’s just wrong.”

While researching options, Rauzi said she learned the City of Taylorville has a semi-exclusive arrangement with two providers that includes provisions for a clean-up day.

According to Rauzi, there will be some restrictions on what residents can take to the curb for clean-up days. “It doesn’t mean you can clean out grandma’s house, put her refrigerator and stove out there and expect them to take it.”

Generally, for clean-up days, the providers agree to take away refuse that will fit into a defined space. Certain items, like used batteries, household chemicals and construction debris, are excluded.

Mayor Pettit said consumers will see no change in the cost of their trash pick-up service. Residents who have DC Waste and Recycling as their trash hauler will actually see a $2 decrease in the rate for additional containers.

Pettit said the semi-exclusive contract provides the incentive for the two companies offer a city-wide clean-up.

“If they’re charging the same thing, what’s the incentive for them,” Pettit said. “With this they know that they will be the only trash haulers in town for the next five years.”

The $24 rate is locked in for the first two years of the contract. Both providers have agreed to increase their rates by no more than three percent annually over the remaining three years of the contract.

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Rauzi dispelled rumors that the city plans to sign contracts with two other waste haulers.

“You can keep your trash hauler for the next five years,” Rauzi explained. “If one of the companies quits, another company could come in as long as there’s no more than two.”

Responding to questions about recycling, Brian Demming of DC Waste said his company offers the service even though it is not a money maker for them.

Recyclables collected on trash day go to a central facility in Hillsboro where it is separated, packaged or baled, and sent on to buyers in Pekin, Bloomington and the Great Lakes. 

He said the company’s website has information about what items can be recycled and customers are given a hand-out when the sign up for the service. Currently, about 60 of the company’s more than 830 Gillespie customers have recycling.

Also responding to questions, Mayor Pettit said both companies say they will give the city their client lists which will help the city with enforcing a city ordinance requiring all residents to have trash service.

He said the city understands that some senior citizens households that generate minimal trash have chosen to share trash hauling services. The city will only cite households that have no trash service at all, he said.

“It’s going to take a lot more work and a lot more due diligence to come up with something that’s fair for everyone,” he said.

Cities that have taken on the responsibility for billing and collecting fees for trash hauling have automatically eliminated the possibility of residents evading the trash hauling requirement. However, in those systems, all households pay for trash service even if they share services with neighbors.

Responding to another question, City Attorney Rick Verticchio confirmed the City of Benld, with an exclusive waste hauling contract, charges $23—one dollar less than Gillespie’s rate—because the city saves the waste hauler the cost of preparing and mailing bills, as well as collecting bad debts.

With no public objection to the plan, it is likely the city council will approve semi-exclusive contracts with Republic Services and DC Waste and Recycling at its next regular meeting on March 9.

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