Updated: Town Board Awards Trash Collection Contract

A day after a contract with Jody Enterprises, following the of two of its employees, the Babylon Town Board approved a 10-year contract with Westbury-based EnCon Industries. 

EnCon will begin collecting trash from the Town’s more than 40,000 households on Oct. 1, ending the Town’s two-decade relationship with Babylon Source Separation Inc. [BSSI]. Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer said the Town would spend the next couple of weeks getting information out to residents, but the only thing he expects to change is the color of the garbage trucks, which will now be orange. 

“Nothing is going to change in terms of what they can put out, what gets picked up,” Schaffer said after the board unanimously awarded the contract, worth nearly $7 million in its first full-year, to EnCon at a special meeting Tuesday afternoon. 

EnCon’s bid of $13.40 per household per month was behind Jody’s $12.99 bid when the original contract was awarded in June. It was also behind other bidders when considering the cost of the entire 10-year contract. 

EnCon agreed to lower its price escalation over the course of the contract--to 60 percent of the Consumer Price Index [CPI] and 10 percent of the Gasoline Price Index [GPI]--following recent discussions with an independent selection committee. 

EnCon officials said the company, which has other residential and commercial trash contracts, had access to enough trucks that will all be painted with appropriate town signage by Oct. 1. 

“We are proud to be able to have the opportunity to serve the Town,” said Michael White, the executive vice president of EnCon. “It is going to be a lot of work between now and Oct. 1 and we are committed to work 24/7 to make that happen. 

An executive with Port Washington-based Dejana Industries took issue with the board’s contract award, claiming that Dejana was the second lowest bidder from the start and that the three-member committee had made “mathematical errors and improperly presented our bid.” 

Bill Wynperle, the executive vice president for Dejana, also said the company was not given a chance to beat EnCon’s final bid. 

“Clearly somebody knew somebody to let them adjust their numbers by $84 million in order for them to win the bid,” Wynperle said after the meeting, referring to a figure he says the Town would have saved over a 20-year period with Dejana compared to EnCon. 

A report from committee dated Tuesday says it had reviewed Dejana statement "in which it asserts that its lowered 'best and final prices' of $14.76 makes it the low bidder, but analysis by the committee indicates that is, in fact, not the case, and that EnCon's bid is indeed the lowest." 

Schaffer also dismissed Dejana’s claims and said he was convinced that EnCon was the low bidder. 

“The benefit of all this is that we have all this competition going on,” he said. “That’s how you get your best price." 

Another company, Brothers Waste Services, told the committee it could match EnCon’s $13.40 bid, but the committee wrote that it “does not find credible Brothers’ assertion that it can implement the contract beginning October 1, 2012 because Brothers does not currently have the vehicles required to perform the job.” 

The board had the option of awarding a short term contract to its current provider, BSSI, but BSSI's offer to provide service through the end of the year at $21.70 [a 20 percent discount from its current rate] was considered too high, Schaffer said. 

Bob Marx, one of the owners of BSSI, told Patch Tuesday afternoon that the company would have loved to be able to match the low bidder, but it wasn’t possible. 

“Listen, if this guy can do it for 13 bucks and do it adequately, God bless him,” said Marx, adding that BSSI has always paid its workers well. “I just don’t think it can be done.” 

Although the Town will be paying a little more than under the contract originally given to Jody, which has also said it will be exploring legal action against the Town, Schaffer said that residents should be quite pleased. 

“They are enjoying the lowest residential collection fee that we’ve had in the Town’s history,” he said. 

Schaffer said residents should make sure to put their trash out the night before pickup when EnCon takes over, at least until the company gets used to its new routes.