Glencoe looking at waste-removal options with LRS contract set to expire

Glencoe officials have a big question they’ll have to answer within the coming months: Should Glencoe look to a new waste-removal provider?

During the Glencoe Village Board’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Thursday, July 16, Village staff updated trustees on the current waste-removal contract with Lakeshore Recycling Systems, which is set to expire this coming Dec. 31.

According to Village Manager Phil Kiraly, LRS has been the Village’s waste hauler — which includes garbage, recycling and yard waste — since 2017. Prior to LRS, Kiraly said the village’s Public Works Department handled waste removal.

But according to Jen Maddux, public works management analyst, “an increased number of complaints” have come in regarding LRS.

“We heard a few very loud voices in opposition to renewing this contract,” she said.

According to Public Works Director Monica Sarna, there are two primary resident complaints.

“The biggest thing we get contacted about is missed pickups,” she said. “We also get a lot of complaints that people can’t even get through to LRS.”

This reportedly has included 45-minute hold times.

With the contract set to expire at the end of the year, Sarna said the Village is currently in talks with LRS regarding potential renewal, and residents’ concerns have been brought up to the company.

“In our first discussions with LRS … we asked for customer service and reporting improvements, enhanced service options, and their proposed pricing for any new contracts,” she said, while adding that LRS has been “responsive” to the Village’s concerns.

The current LRS rates, according to the Village, include garbage and recycling bundled together as one cost, yard waste pickup as a seasonal subscription or a pre-use sticker purchase, and bulk item pickup for residents who preschedule and prepay. Bulk items, according to the Village’s website, are items less than 50 pounds and fewer than 4 feet long.

Another option within the current contract includes a seasonal suspension of service when people are out of town. LRS also offers a Spring Clean-Up Day with an annual fee.

Village staff said LRS collects garbage and recycling every weekday except for Wednesday, which is reserved for villagewide yard waste collection from April through December.

LRS changes?

While no new contract has been prepared, Maddux said discussions have led to LRS sharing its thoughts, including the company’s lack of interest in continuing to offer bulk-item pickup.

“It’s really hard for (LRS) to staff (and) their guys aren’t all prepared to be lifting heavy items all day,” she said, adding that LRS also had concerns about potential workers’ compensation claims.

Instead, Maddux said LRS offered to allow residents one weekly item under the current contract framework.

“They have also offered to allow residents two bulk items if the Village agrees to eliminate the Spring Clean-Up Day,” she added.

According to Sarna, LRS wants to eliminate Spring Clean-Up Day because it is difficult to staff.

But she added that LRS is offering to implement a Fall Cleanup Day instead, “because that helps with their staffing. They end up spending so much overtime on these events throughout the region that they just have a really hard time with staff during this spring cleaning frenzy that they have across the North Shore.”

Both Sarna and Maddux said if the Village decides to accept LRS’s offer, implementing the changes would be a “phased” approach.

Trustee Dudley Onderdonk said he wanted to see at least one Villagewide cleanup day.

“I think it’s important that we have it,” he said. “So let’s not do away with the collection day at all.”

Trustee Hilary Scott was concerned about allowing multiple bulk items.

“I’m not sure I love the idea of up to two bulk items out on our parkways every single week every two weeks of the year,” she said. “It just seems problematic.”

Maddux also mentioned the possibility of including food scraps and organic materials into the base fee, which she said would be aligned with the Village’s sustainability plan that reportedly is set to be presented before the end of the year.

“This is a rare opportunity to align our actions with the goals that will be coming out of that plan,” she said.

A short extension?

As discussions and negotiations with LRS continue, Maddux added that one possibility that’s being considered is to extend the current contract by six months before going out to bid next summer.

“We think a six-month extension is feasible and would allow us more time to develop the (request for proposal) and then any potential change would occur this summer rather than in December,” she said.

Kiraly added that summer is a better time to transition to a new provider, should the Village decide to go in that direction.

“One of the reasons that we would seek (an extension) is that January is a terrible time to do a transition from one provider to another,” he said. “You’re going to want to have warm weather, people home, those kinds of things that is more true in June than it is in January.”

Another challenge with a potential new provider, Kiraly said, is that there are not many waste removal companies remaining, as many have consolidated.

“Having a limited pool means … we may get worse results in an RFP process,” he said. “I’ve been a part of a process like that and it’s not great, because you could have negotiated something and then you find yourself in a circumstance where you’re actually paying more because you did a competitive process.”

He added that LRS officials have expressed to the Village that they are “eager to stay in service to the community.”

“We have expressed to them you should show it by underscoring your customer service standards by giving us numbers that are practical and real, and we of course, I think, want to be mindful of the sustainability components of garbage collection,” he said.

Village staff said they expect to return to trustees by September with either a recommendation to renew the contract with LRS or a six-month extension in preparation for going out to bid.

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