MEDINA – County officials are analyzing bids on a new contract to manage operations at the Central Processing Facility for solid waste.

With the current contract expiring Jan. 11, the county has little time to spare in naming a new operator at the facility where trash from around the county is hauled before being transferred to a landfill for disposal.

Representatives from Medina County’s Solid Waste District opened four bid packets on the contract Nov. 22. Those came from current operator Kimble Companies as well as Rumpke Waste and Recycling, Waste Management Corp. and Republic Services.

Solid Waste Coordinator Beth Biggins-Ramer had hoped to have bids on the contract in hand sooner but delayed advertising for them earlier this fall when the Solid Waste Policy Committee postponed a vote on maintaining the district’s current solid waste plan, a decision that had implications for the length of the new contract.

The delayed decision on the solid waste plan forced county officials to forgo a longer-term contract option for CPF operations and instead resulted in another two-year contract with options for three one-year renewals.

Contracts to manage CPF operations haven’t come easily for the county. The county bid the contract three times in 2009 before finally agreeing to a renewal of a five-year contract with Envision Waste Services.

In 2014, county commissioners rejected all bids to continue recycling operations at the CPF and decided to convert the CPF into a simple transfer station. That prompted Envision to seek a restraining order against the county for breach of contract which was ultimately lifted just in time to award the current CPF contract to Kimble.

Kimble’s bid two years ago was $26.95 a ton to transfer, transport and dispose of trash hauled to the CPF. The company's new bid for the same services was $27.68, according to Sanitary Engineer Amy Lyon-Galvin. Rumpke was the unofficial low bidder at $25.50 per ton and Waste Management and Republic came in with unofficial bids of $28.50 and $29.45 respectively.

With about 140,000 tons of trash being hauled to the CPF each year, the contract will generate about $3.6 million a year in revenue for the company that operates the facility.

“I’m pleased with the bids we got,” Lyon-Galvin said. “The close range between the high and low bids suggests it’s still a competitive market with plenty of contractors interested. That suggests we’re getting good prices to choose from.”

Lyon-Galvin said the bids were unofficial until they could be more carefully scrutinized by both her department and the Medina County Prosecutor’s Office, which provides legal advice and reviews contracts for county officials.

In addition, some options unique to these bids were not immediately analyzed. Those options include the handling of some recyclable material which is presorted. The CPF stopped processing recyclable material when Envision shut down its sorting operations which allowed some of the paper, plastic and aluminum to be separated from the trash hauled there.

The suspension of sorting operations at the CPF resulted in a sharp reduction of operating costs at the CPF and prompted the county to introduce new recycling options which consist mainly of the drop-off bins placed at 50 locations around the county. Kimble has a separate contract to service the drop-off bins which does not expire until 2018.