City council gives Progressive five-year trash pickup contract

Progressive Waste Solutions will continue to pick up Morgan City residents’ garbage for at least another five years.
On Tuesday, the City Council approved a five-year contract with the company. The contract has options for renewals of three years, then two years.
Progressive will use all new garbage trucks under the contract. If the council renews the contract, Morgan City will get new trucks again after six years.
On July 13, Progressive began picking up Morgan City’s garbage as part of a six-month “emergency” contract because the city was having issues with city-run garbage collection, Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi said.
The St. Mary Parish Council recently approved Pelican Waste & Debris to begin collecting garbage in the unincorporated areas of the parish Nov. 1 at a monthly rate of $15.77 per unit. Berwick has also approved a contract with Progressive, and the Patterson City Council will be able to approve Progressive’s contract at its September meeting.
In addition to Pelican’s bid, Morgan City officials chose to get another bid from Progressive Waste Solutions, which came in at $15.50 per month, Grizzaffi said.
Since Progressive took over collecting garbage in Morgan City, garbage-related complaints have “drastically” reduced, Grizzaffi said.
Two former Morgan City garbage truck drivers are now working for Progressive to pick up the city’s garbage.
At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Grizzaffi recommended the council approve the contract with Progressive, and the council unanimously backed that decision approving Progressive’s contract.
In 2013, Grizzaffi had proposed the city sign a contract with Progressive and discontinue city-run garbage pickup, but the council voted against it at the time.
Councilman Louis Tamporello said his concern with Pelican is that they don’t have a track record yet in the residential garbage collection business.
Pelican is a 2-year-old company and has only done commercial garbage collection, so far, though its owners have more than 30 years in the garbage pickup business.
Other parish entities have had issues with Progressive’s service in the past, Tamporello said. However, a few things have changed for the better under the city’s contract with Progressive, he said.
Progressive Operations Manager Jay Gunter said the “horror stories” of problems Progressive had in the past are over. Because Progressive is a big company, that gives it lots of resources to draw on should there be any issues with the garbage trucks, he said.
Progressive will use three side-loading garbage trucks and one front-loading truck. The trucks will only be used to pick up Morgan City’s garbage, Grizzaffi said.
Councilman Tim Hymel said Progressive seems to be doing a good job of getting garbage picked up on time.
Councilman Barry Dufrene said he wanted to be in favor of whichever company St. Mary Parish government awarded the contract to and believes Pelican could have done a great job in Morgan City.
But he chose to stand behind the mayor’s recommendation and vote for Progressive’s contract with the rest of the council, Dufrene said.
Councilman Ron Bias said he was originally concerned about Progressive after talking to people he knew in west St. Mary Parish who had negative experiences with the company. But after talking with Gunter, Bias understood that Progressive has taken care of the issues it had in the past collecting garbage, he said.
Bias is also happy with the job Progressive has done for Morgan City, he said.
Councilman James Fontenot said residents are pleased with the service Progressive has been providing since July. Therefore, Fontenot and the residents he talked to didn’t see any reason to change what’s working and what’s cheaper than Pelican’s proposed rate, he said.
Additionally, Progressive’s contract cannot increase by more than 3 percent each year compared to Pelican’s 4 percent annual cap, Fontenot said.
Pelican CEO Roddie Matherne said “sooner or later” he’ll be back before the Morgan City Council vying for the garbage contract again.
Matherne thanked the city for the opportunity to compete for the contract.
At the meeting, the council approved a steel sheet pile bid tabulation for Morgan City’s riverfront wharf project, which will shortly get underway, Grizzaffi said.
The council also introduced an amendment to the city’s parking ordinance to not allow boats or campers to park on public streets.
In other business, the council
—Approved the planning and zoning commission’s recommendations to divide lots at 2700 Sixth St. and 509 Third St.
—Approved a resolution to declare surplus equipment.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald of The Daily Review staff. Reach him at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com.