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To the editor: 

This has been a challenging four years and we have all felt increase of costs all around us. The Adams County Board of Supervisors has millions of dollars of accomplishments without raising taxes. Some of these improvements are as follow: an $8 million dollar road project including resurfacing 96 roads, $3.5 million dollar upgrade to all county parks, $5.3 million secured for the Morgantown Road project, $8 million in airport and port improvements, $4 million in Bellwood levee completion, rail system upgrade, and a portion of the IP property development.

However, garbage cost doubled and, in some cases, tripled due to higher fuel rates, maintenance cost, environmental fees to name a few. There has been a little confusion about the recent garbage decision, but we chose to keep garbage collection twice a week and we picked the cheaper provider to do such whom had a proven history of helping the county. This is the basis of our decision:

In 2018, the board approved Metro as the service provider and Metro’s rate was $10.25 per house when the contract terminated. In 2022, Metro requested an increased rate, but the county held them to their original deal and they later filed bankruptcy and opted out of our contract in December of 2022.

After soliciting various garbage collection companies in the area, including ADSI, only Hometown and Metro offered to assist the county temporarily. It was unanimously approved by the board in our RFP that if a company failed to submit a bid for temporary assistance, then that could be grounds to disqualify the proposer. Metro was the lowest emergency price and offered the same service — twice a week collection — for 90 days at $19 per household and that gave the board time to solicit proposals for a longer termed contract.

After an advertisement soliciting proposals was made, only two companies submitted proposals: ADSI and United Infrastructure. Proposals were opened in a public meeting with ADSI bidding $26.95 and United Infrastructure bidding $26.66 — a 1% difference over the course of a year — for twice a week service.

Adams County has been twice a week pickup since we can remember and we do not think our citizens wanted fewer weekly garbage pickups. We chose the cheapest proposal that kept our citizens’ service the same and from a company who also helped out during an emergency over a more expensive proposal from a company that was unable to offer a temporary solution.

We stand by our decision.

Ricky Gray, Supervisor District 4

Warren Gaines, Supervisor District 5