Select Board backs professional help, timeline for $5.6M solid‑waste RFQ and collection‑center review

The Kingston Select Board agreed to pursue specialized contract and negotiation assistance to ready a municipal solid‑waste request for qualifications (RFQ) and follow a timeline intended to allow awarding a new contract by July 13, 2026.

Phil Coombs, chair of the Solid Waste and Recycling Committee, presented a proposed timeline that would present collection‑center data to the Select Board in November and release the RFQ in April 2026 with responses due May 13, 2026. “This would then allow for the committee and the select board to evaluate the responses, or the committee to evaluate the responses, make recommendations to the select board no later than 8 June of 20 26, and then executing the contract 13 July of 20 26,” Coombs said.

Committee members and Select Board members agreed the town needs specialized assistance drafting contract terms and negotiating to avoid past problems with the current provider. Coombs and others described the municipal solid‑waste contract as the town’s largest procurement — roughly $900,000 per year under the existing contract and an expected total over the five‑year term in the range of $5.6 million. Committee members asked the board to check whether the town’s regular counsel has contract specialists; Coombs offered to provide candidate names for firms that specialize in solid‑waste contracts.

Public commenter Chuck Margosian, who said he has experience on both sides of procurement tables, urged moving the bidders conference earlier, saying it often prompts RFQ amendments: “Expect the unexpected... getting that bidders conference moved up, the sooner the better,” he said.

The committee also debated the role and scope of the town’s collection center. Committee members and Select Board members discussed whether the collection center should focus on materials that cannot be disposed of in household trash (mattresses, appliances, sponsored events like shredding), how volunteer labor factors into operations, and how removing curbside recycling could change town costs and participation. Phil Coombs noted the collection‑center trial approach was intended to be low‑cost and that the committee plans to present actual collection data to the board in the fall.

The Select Board instructed staff to check with town counsel about in‑house expertise and to report back; Coombs will suggest possible contract consultants. No formal contract award decision was made during the meeting.