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The Mountain Home City Council approved a new waste collection contract with Waste Connections Thursday night, implementing several changes aimed at simplifying service and billing for residents.
“We really worked hard to simplify it. It was so complicated with the different sized carts and refunds back,” Waste Connections District Manager Kendrick Ketchum told the council. “We sat at this table, I don’t know how many times… and argued back and forth. It was good arguments.”
Under the new contract, residents can select their preferred cart size while maintaining a single residential rate of $21.95 per month. Commercial customers will pay $36.95 for single-cart service. The city will keep a $1 billing collection fee, increased from 75 cents.
Customers will have their choice of cart sizes, with Ketchum noting they have over 2,500 of the 96-gallon carts ready for deployment.
“We have we’ve stayed with what we think people are going to say, we want the 96,” Ketchum told the council, adding that residents can switch to a different size later if needed.
One significant change ties annual rate adjustments to the southern region’s Consumer Price Index rather than national figures.
“We’re actually looking at increases or possibly decreases that reflect our area, our region versus being compared to New York, California, Washington State,” said City Councilman Bob Van Haaren.
The contract also simplifies bulk waste collection. Residents can schedule pickup of large items like furniture or appliances for $25 per item, with a $50 charge for items weighing over 100 pounds. Council members noted this represents an improvement over the previous system’s tag requirements.
“We encourage them to go to the twice a year [cleanup],” Ketchum explained, referring to the free citywide cleanup events that remain part of the contract.
The agreement maintains support for local recycling, with Waste Connections continuing to provide $1,500 to the recycling center. The company will now pay a $125 per load disposal fee that had previously been covered by the city.
Special attention was given to accessibility services in the new contract, with Waste Connections now offering door-to-door services for the elderly and disabled.
“We’re going to do door side. We’re going to identify with help of the code officer those residents that need the help and we’re going to go the extra mile and do whatever we can to make sure that they get good service,” Ketchum said. “Whatever they need, we’re going to make sure we get it.”
“This has been being worked on for probably eight, nine months,” Mayor Hillrey Adams noted, praising the collaborative effort to improve services. “Waste Connections has done a lot to improve the service as well, even outside of this.”
The council voted unanimously to approve the new contract.
