Murrysville officials will consider new hauling contract with Republic Services

While the cost of just about everything seems to have risen over the course of the covid-19 pandemic, the price Murrysville residents pay for trash hauling and recycling may stay the same, at least for the coming year.

Three haulers provided bids for a combined Murrysville/Export hauling contract, with the current hauler Republic Services coming in the lowest.

“To say we’re pleased and surprised by the bids is an understatement,” Murrysville Chief Administrator Jim Morrison said. “Republic’s bid came in at the same price we’re paying this year, for the first year of the contract.”

Waste Management and Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill were the other bidders.

The Republic bid outlines increases of 40 cents to 80 cents per year in the second through fifth years of the contract.

Morrison said he had opted not to push for automated trash collection.

“I think we can continue to go as we have, enjoy this price for the first year, accept the mild year-over-year increases and quality services, which I think are being delivered by our current hauler,” he said.

Morrison said staff recommended that council enter into a new five-year contract with Republic Services. No official action was taken at council’s June 2 meeting.

Export and Delmont

Export joined with Murrysville in seeking a new hauling contract. Council President Barry Delissio said it was not discussed at their June meeting but will be on the July agenda.

“We have some different criteria in our part of the bid,” Delissio said, referring the borough’s request that any hauler use smaller-sized trucks to avoid damaging streets and curbs.

Officials in Delmont entered into a hauling contract with Republic in 2017, partly with the idea of joining Murrysville and Export and negotiating together when it expired.

However, Delmont was not part of the Murrysville/Export request for bids, and the borough’s trash committee chair, Councilman Dennis Urban, suggested in April the borough revert to its pre-2017 situation, where residents would choose — and negotiate with — their hauler of choice.

In deciding whether to solicit hauling bids in 2016, council members noted the downside of the everyone-chooses-their-own scenario: Residents with the same hauler were often paying a wide range of different prices.

Mayor Alyce Urban said additional discussion about a future hauling contract is likely to take place at council’s June 8 meeting, set for 7 p.m. in the Delmont Public Library at 75 School Street.