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Council debates whether to buy a dump truck to bring garbage pickup in-house
Summary
Members questioned large contract costs for garbage pickup and whether buying a used dump truck and staffing crews could reduce long-term costs; staff warned hiring and insurance would add expense and need analysis.
Council members flagged salary and overtime charges allocated to garbage despite Mabton not operating its own garbage collection and discussed potential cost savings from acquiring a used dump truck and running pickup in-house. One member suggested phoning suppliers for rough estimates: "Would you guys have an issue if I was to make some phone calls just to get a rough estimate of what a used dump truck would cost to see if it would be affordable?" she asked, citing the contractors' annual charges of roughly "200 and some thousand dollars per year" as a comparison.
Staff and other councilmembers said switching to in-house service would require additional personnel (driver plus one or two pick-up staff), CDL drivers and additional insurance; staff noted past attempts to source trucks produced limited options and that a thorough cost-benefit and procurement analysis would be required before any change. Council asked staff to research truck costs and to estimate the total additional staffing and insurance costs for a feasible comparison.
