WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) — Wausau officials are moving along on a new contract for city waste collection.
The council voted in March to hire Harter’s Fox Valley Disposal for a ten-year contract. The change would move the city to an automated collection system where the contractor owns the carts. Wausau finance director Maryanne Groat says they’ve got most of the paperwork on the deal ready to go. “We are in contract finalization right now, and really the next step will be education of the residents.” The contract will save the city around $650,000 in the first year over their current deal with Advanced Disposal and around $548,000 a year over 10 years.
Carts will start being delivered between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and Groat says between now and then the city will be doing an educational blitz to train residents how to use the new carts. “We will be putting together a complete educational package that will use multimedia sources so that all of our residents are completed informed about what the program will look like come January 1.”
Groat says she’s hoping to see an increase in recycling collection through the automated pickup. “You know we all have the responsibility to do the right thing, and recycling is the law! So if we can get more people recycling, it’s going good for the environment and it’s good for the community financially.” The city gets grants based on the total amount of recycling collected.
A vote in the April elections left Wausau’s garbage billson the general tax levy instead of a line item on resident’s tax bills.
