BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The Lake Butler City Commission voted 4-1 to retain its current solid waste contractor, GFL, despite Mayor Melissa Hendrix’s complaints about the trash hauler’s customer service response.
“I can speak to myself as a citizen as well as the commission,” Hendrix told her colleagues. “I don’t know how many complaints you all have received, but I received quite a few of garbage not getting picked up. Our roads have been damaged by the trucks.”
GFL and Waste Pro were the only two bidders for the solid waste contract. While Waste Pro appeared competitive with the incumbent in residential prices, the challenger’s fees for commercial pickups were up to five times GFL’s.
GFL responds to complaints
The mayor added that, according to the city’s current contract with GFL, the contractor is supposed to pick up yard waste. However, according to Hendrix, city workers have been collecting tree limbs and leaves because GFL has failed to do so.
“When the truck breaks down,” Hendrix added, “another truck’s supposed to come in and be replaced to finish that for the day. Well, I can tell you that hasn’t happened because that has happened here over the past few years, where a truck would break down, and what they do is they come back the next day.”
Kevin Smith, the general manager for Gainesville’s GFL office, told commissioners that his company brought in a replacement after hearing complaints about trucks damaging city streets.
“We made an initial investment, and we brought another style truck up, which is the brand new one that you all see now to help reduce some of that turn friction,” he said.
Smith added that the company’s communication with city leaders was hurt by the COVID-19 Pandemic, but he was confident that his team would now adequately respond to any complaints by Lake Butler residents.
Smith told commissioners that two hurricanes passing through the area over the past year affected service. One storm closed the landfill GFL had been using to dispose of Lake Butler’s trash.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years of my life,” he said. “Situations do arise, but it’s all about the response that you give to make sure that as much as you possibly can, that things are intact.”
Smith said that even during COVID, when other companies stopped picking up trash because of staffing shortages, his company continued serving Lake Butler.
“We didn’t have to stop servicing garbage like other companies did because we had a commitment,” he said.
Waste Pro: Look at value, not just price
Dayna Williams, Waste Pro’s director of governmental affairs, focused on the company’s ownership and added that private, American-owned enterprises deliver better service than the alternatives. She said Waste Pro’s corporate headquarters is in Longwood, just north of Orlando, and that Waste Pro’s founder and executive board chair, John Jennings, has driven through Lake Butler.
“I don’t know necessarily that other companies, their upper CEOs, even would know where Lake Butler is, and we are the— as far as your two proposals in front of you— we’re the only American company of the proposals in front of you.”
Williams added that instead of only looking at price, Lake Butler officials should also consider value.
“Obviously,” she said, “if you were happy with what you currently have, I wouldn’t be here (and) we wouldn’t be here talking about this.”
Williams also said her company’s proposal went into detail about how Waste Pro would avoid school zones and Main Street during busy times, and how its routes programmed the trucks’ turns on main roads, which are better suited to handle heavy equipment.
“We talked about what our trucks are equipped with, including GPS, and including Third Eye,” she said. “Third Eye is a camera system that allows us to pull up video, and we’re able to pull up a specific stop… if staff needed to confirm something about a stop, we would be able to pull up video of that stop and be able to answer those questions.”
