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Council directs staff to issue notice of default to waste hauler amid repeated service complaints
Summary
After repeated customer complaints about missed pickups and poor communication, the council directed staff to send a formal notice of default to the town's waste contractor and signaled intent not to automatically renew the contract in 2027 and to solicit bids.
Council discussed ongoing collection failures and customer complaints regarding the town's waste hauler (transcribed with name variants including "Black Hat Waste" and "Blackhawk"). Staff recapped the contract timeline: a three-year contract executed in July 2024 that contains automatic renewal and notice provisions.
Given repeated service lapses and abundant resident complaints (email, text, Facebook posts and voicemail), council directed staff to send a formal notice of default as the first step toward potential early termination and to advise the contractor that the city will not automatically renew the contract in 2027 so the city can competitively bid the service.
Staff said the contract requires documentation of failures (the city will collect emails, texts and voicemails) and that the termination-for-cause process requires three notices of default before early termination. Council members discussed the timing and whether giving early notice might reduce leverage, but ultimately authorized staff to send the default notice and to begin preparations to solicit bids and plan for continuity if the contractor can't fulfill service obligations.
A council member summarized: "I've got emails, I've got text messages, we've got messages on Facebook; it's coming in. If I could save every voicemail on my voicemail, it would be full."
