Deal would privatize city trash services

Clarendon city officials are working towards a deal that would privatize municipal sanitation services while preserving local jobs and saving money.

Mayor Sandy Skelton and Brandon Brown of Diversified Waste Management say the goal is to provide a transition so smooth that customers will not even realize there has been a change. That will be accomplished in large part, Brown says, by the city’s sanitation workers becoming employees of Diversified Waste.

“The employees here, you can’t replace them. Period,” Brown told the Enterprise. “I was so impressed by all of them. They all take great pride in their work.”

Earlier this year, the city learned that its transfer station – the area where trash trucks off-load their collections into a transport container – was not in compliance with state regulations for the transfer of refuse (i.e. common trash). The station is in compliance for handling construction and demolition material as well as recycling materials and yard waste.

City Administrator David Dockery investigated what it would take to upgrade the transfer station, and the estimated costs began mounting. According to the city’s engineer, the transfer station changes would cost $600,000 for design, construction, and permitting; and that was on top of the coming need for two new trash trucks in the near future and then a third trash truck within a few years.

Dockery said it soon became apparent that maintaining the city’s own trash collection service was going to require an infusion of cash approaching $900,000 to keep collecting trash and hauling it to the landfill in Memphis. And then there would still be the issue of the long-time supervisor Joe Neal Shadle’s expected retirement this fall and the loss of his experience.

It was then that Dockery reached out to Brown, who had been wanting to provide waste services to Clarendon for several years. The parties began negotiations, which are now coming to fruition.

“This is going to be a win-win for the community,” Brown said. “It’s a great blessing for us to have the opportunity to serve a community like this, and I hope it is for the city as well.”

Shadle is optimistic that the change will benefit the city and its residents.

“Of course, you’d like to see it stay local,” Shadle said, “But it’s going to cost the city quite a bit to stay in the business. Things have just gotten so darn expensive. You’re talking about $300,000 possibly or more for two new trucks.”

The city attorney is still finalizing the terms of the agreement, but both parties say Diversified Waste has agreed to several conditions. The company will purchase all of the city’s sanitation vehicles and equipment as well as the city’s Dumpsters; Diversified will retain all the city’s sanitation workers, other than Shadle, who is retiring, at their current or higher salaries; and Diversified will provide the service at a rate equal to or lower than what the city is currently paying. Diversified will also continue to service several grass and leaf Dumpsters that are also located around town.

“Our goal is to make it cheaper, but it won’t exceed the current rate,” Brown said.

Diversified is based in Amarillo and has more than 3,000 accounts, Brown said. Most of those are in housing developments outside Amarillo. Diversified’s only municipal account is with the City of Claude, but Brown hopes to change that by offering more services to the southeast Panhandle using Clarendon as a base.

“Our plan isn’t to eliminate jobs but to create jobs,” Brown said. “We want to expand and make Clarendon a hub. I want to provide incentives so that this is a place people will want to work.”

Shadle said Brown has talked to current sanitation employees about keeping benefits the same and also possibly raising salaries. He also said Brown was impressed by the city’s employees’ talents and how they work to save the city money.

“These guys can do a lot of work,” Shadle said. “They can do welding, fix Dumpsters, maintain the trucks. We’re getting ready to work on a transmission today. Brandon’s guys don’t do all that.”

Brown says he intends to be in a Clarendon a lot to learn from local workers how things are done here. That commitment also impressed Shadle, who was very interested in preserving his workers’ jobs.

“These guys are local and have families,” Shadle said. “Brandon seems like a good guy, and he’s got a place here. That means a lot.”

The city and Diversified are also working on a lease agreement that would allow the company to use the city’s facilities on Front Street as a base while two part-time city employees will continue to operate recycling services there. Collection of recycling Dumpsters would by subcontracted to Diversified.

Mayor Skelton said Claude officials have nothing but praise for Diversified Waste, and Brown says he intend to bring that same service to Clarendon.

“We’ve had no rate increase in Claude in three years,” he said. “It’s gotten to be a positive thing for both of us.”

Diversified is already working in Donley County, providing the trash haul-off service at the county dump, and Judge John Howard says the county has been satisfied with its dealings with the company.

Brown has a weekend home in Donley County and says his family has enjoyed the Fourth of July here for a long time. He also said due to his company’s working relationship with the county, Diversified has provided the portable toilets for the Saints’ Roost Celebration on the courthouse square for several years at no charge.

“We want to get very involved in the community through annual clean-ups and other ways,” Brown said. “In Claude we sponsor a big meal for the 4-H, and we’ve done happy hours at the tea place and the snow cone place, and we’re planning one at the ice cream place there.”

City officials say they hope to have a contract in place with Diversified by October 1 for the start of the new fiscal year.

“We’re going to make mistakes, but we’ll do everything we can to make it right,” Brown said, emphasizing that the trash trucks will still be driven by the same local employees everyone has come to know. “I think the only change people will see is that some Dumpsters may get replaced.”