November 20, 2019
Dear Rye Brook Resident:
I’m writing to notify you about an important and sudden change to our sanitation services.
As you may have heard, the Village’s current sanitation company (Waste Services, Inc.) had its license revoked to operate as a solid waste hauler in Westchester County for actions that occurred prior to them working in Rye Brook. As a result, Rye Brook is now required by Westchester County to change sanitation companies (our current contract with Waste Services would have expired on 5/31/2021).
Effective December 2, 2019, sanitation collection will change from Waste Services to CRP Sanitation. Your garbage and recycling pickup days will not change, but household garbage pickup will change from “rear yard” collection to curbside collection. For residents who still wish to receive “rear yard” collection, they can pay CRP Sanitation $30 per month to continue to have rear yard garbage collection. In addition, bulk pickup will now change from the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month to weekly on the 2nd garbage collection day of each week.
For background, below is a timeline of events which necessitated that the village change carting companies. I know that this is a lot of detailed information, but this has been a complicated process, and I want you to have all the facts.
- The Village was informed by Peri Kadanoff, Executive Director of the Westchester County Solid Waste Commission, that as of August 5, 2019 Waste Services’ license to operate was suspended by the Commission.
- Since early August, the Village has been in regular communication with Ms. Kadanoff, as well as County Executive George Latimer, who agreed on several occasions to extend the time that Waste Services could continue to operate in our community until we found another acceptable sanitation company.
- The Village initially went out to bid for a new sanitation company at the same level of service as we currently have (rear yard pickup), but only received one (1) response for an annualized amount of $1,500,000 in the first year. This was 82% higher than the current annual amount of $823,920 we pay Waste Services, so this bid was soundly rejected by our Board of Trustees.
- With a County-issued deadline looming to end service with Waste Services, the Village Board authorized an emergency Request for Proposal (RFP) to provide sanitation service through May 31, 2020. Both rear yard and curbside options were in the RFP, which resulted in two proposals received, but they were again extremely high, with the lowest proposal increasing current costs by $473,460 (curbside) and $557,460 (rear yard) on an annualized basis.
- Not wanting to pay exorbitant amounts above our current sanitation contract, the Village received approval from the County Solid Waste Commission to go out to bid for a longer-term contract. We then went out to bid for curbside collection, with a separate fee that residents could pay directly to the sanitation company for rear yard garbage collection.
- The Village received five (5) bid proposals, and the Village Board selected CRP Sanitation. The bid will require that residents bring their own garbage cans to the curb while having the voluntary option of paying directly to the sanitation company an additional $30 per month for rear yard collection. Over the next 18 months, this service will cost the village $252,024 more than our current agreement with Waste Services. While not ideal, it was the best option available balancing costs, service levels, and making rear yard collection available for those that want to continue that service.
In making this decision, we fully understand that Rye Brook will be getting less sanitation service for a higher cost, and we are obviously not happy about it. Some people have speculated that the current amount paid for sanitation services to Waste Services is artificially low, and that is the reason the costs are now significantly higher. However, we do not subscribe to that theory as the market has shown that Rye Brook has historically had contracts with multiple sanitation companies for amounts between $693,672 and $823,920 per year since 2013.
I can assure you that we looked at all options seeking a cost-effective and efficient sanitation service for our residents. This has included continuing rear yard collection, changing to a curbside collection using automated equipment, a curbside collection using your own cans, sharing sanitation services with neighboring municipalities, and creating our own municipal sanitation department. In the long term, we felt like the option selected is the best one for the residents at this time.
If you wish to pay CRP $30 per month to continue “rear yard” pickup, please go to the CRP’s signup page, or call CRP directly at 914-592-4129.’
Sincerely,
Paul S. Rosenberg
Mayor