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The Florissant City Council has chosen Meridian Waste as the only residential trash hauler in the city. The council passed a bill that authorizes the mayor to enter into a contract with Meridian to provide the city’s residential trash service.

The council passed four amendments to the original bill. The first change has to do with recycling containers. In the original proposal, residents would have had to get the bins from Meridian. Now, the city will use grant money to provide the bins.

The second change was a change to the contract’s date. The contract will start on March 29, 2009 and run through March 21, 2012. It will have two 1- year options.

The third change adds a delinquency rate over 10% to a list of reasons why Meridian could ask the city to reconsider the contract. Other reasons include gas costs, landfill fees, and other unforeseen circumstances.

City Attorney John Hessel explained that the council was not agreeing to change the contract because of delinquency rates or the other reasons listed in the contract. “You are not obligated,” Hessel said. “This promises that you will carefully consider it.”

The fourth amendment the council passed raised the price originally proposed by $1. The contract now calls for residents to pay $12.85 per month for the first year of the contract, $13.36 per month for the second year, and $13.69 per month for the third year. Senior citizens will receive a 50% discount. Yard waste pick-up will cost $8.15 per month, and must be ordered for at least three months.

Councilman Keith English said he could not support the bill. “I don’t believe the city of Florissant should be responsible for the loss of jobs due to this,” he said.

English noted that Waste Management and other trash haulers would likely lay off employees when they lost their Florissant business. English said that with the ‘tag a bag’ programs the seniors now have, he was not certain this would beneficial to seniors.

“I used to be a proponent of several haulers,” Councilwoman Karen McKay said. But she said that after she was elected, she discovered that residents in her ward and throughout the city wanted it. “Our responsibility is to our residents, not to the trash haulers,” she said.

Mayor Robert Lowery said he supported the single hauler, adding that, because of mandates from St. Louis County, the city must change the current system. “The county has mandated that cities enter into agreements that allow recycling,” he said.

Councilman Mark Schmidt said that the city was probably one of the last in the county not to have a single hauler. “I was not always a fan of a single hauler system,” he said, “but talking with residents, this proposal, and the price sold me. I am a convert.”

The council passed the bill, with all but English voting “yes”.

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