The City Council will vote next week on a regional trash disposal contract with the Southeasterm Public Service Authority.
The resolution proposed Tuesday by City Manager Dave Hansen would amend SPSA’s regional agreement to include the collection of commercial waste. It would allow the authority to commit to RePower, the company that would begin collecting the region’s trash in early 2018.
The authority in April rejected most of the city’s conditions, including a request to make the contract long-term and to include commercial solid waste. SPSA’s board set a mid-May deadline for Virginia Beach to opt in or out of the deal.
“One of the things I’m concerned about, there are just too many unknowns right now,” Councilman Bob Dyer said. “There’s not a predictable course, there’s a very uncertain course that we have going forward. I consider RePower an experiment more than a solution right now.”
Councilwoman Rosemary Wilson voiced concern over the possible debt that could ensue if RePower fails, and asked Hansen how that debt would be collected. Hansen said RePower must allocate its own financing and that the debt would not be the responsibility of SPSA.
“Frankly, it’s more of a contract matter,” Hansen said.
The City Manager said he is confident that if RePower failed, it would be able to provide a backup landfill service, and the Suffolk landfill would likely be expanded.
Vice Mayor Louis Jones supported Hansen’s recommended resolution. The measure would allow the city manager to amend the agreement with SPSA to include commercial solid waste.
“It seems to me the city manager’s recommendation is a reasonable recommendation based on what we’re dealing with,” Jones said. “I don’t see where we have a lot of risk in the immediate future.”
Jones said the city would have to monitor the agreement as it nears the end of the contract to decide whether or not to continue with the service.
If the Council approves the resolution next week, it will be up to SPSA to decide if it will accept Virginia Beach’s condition of commercial waste. If the authority does not accept the condition, or the Council does not approve the resolution, the city would seek proposals from other trash haulers to handle the city’s waste, Hansen said.
