Two weeks after the city of Oneonta approved an agreement with Logan’s Trucking for waste management at 27 Market St., the agreement has not been signed yet by the private trash hauler.
City Administrator Greg Mattice informed members of the Common Council’s Legislative Committee of the development Monday, July 13.
On Wednesday, Mayor Dan Buttermann said he had a call scheduled Friday with Logan’s Trucking representatives.
“It’s not that they’re not willing to sign the agreement as is,” he said. “It’s more of that they were concerned with, I think, a bid that they received for the installation of the screen” which would surround the dumpsters. He said he was hopeful a solution could be found.
City officials spent much of the spring and early summer searching for a solution to waste management at the site in the back corner of a parking lot, the address of which technically is 23 Market St. Dumpsters out in the open there, owned by Casella Waste Systems and Logan’s Trucking, were used by downtown businesses.
In a June 30 special meeting, Common Council members approved and Buttermann signed an agreement with Logan’s Trucking for the company to be responsible for enclosing and maintaining dumpsters there. Under the agreement, Logan’s Trucking would pay the city $250 per month and be responsible for keeping the site clean and screening in the dumpsters.
Absent the agreement, dumpsters had a July 1 deadline to be removed from the location. Casella’s dumpsters were no longer at the site by July 1. Logan’s Trucking’s dumpsters were present Wednesday.
Buttermann said Wednesday that Logan’s Trucking had been straightforward and a good partner to work with so far. He said his goal was to help the business work through the issues to reach a resolution soon.
“Our intention is to move forward with this agreement that we have with Logan’s,” Buttermann said. “If they change their mind and decide not to go through with it, then yes, they they would have to remove the dumpsters.”
At Monday’s Legislative Committee meeting, Mattice said that while Buttermann and Council member Len Carson, R-Fifth Ward, were the main points of contact with Logan’s Trucking, it was his understanding that Logan’s Trucking was “not currently willing to sign the agreement that was approved by the council, so they haven’t yet.”
Carolyn Marks, D-Seventh Ward, asked why Logan’s Trucking had not signed the agreement.
Mattice said it was because of the “cost and scope of the undertaking.”
Marks said that when she drove by the site Sunday Logan’s Trucking dumpsters were still there. If the company “hasn’t signed the agreement, then those should be removed,” Marks said.
Logan’s Trucking did not return requests for comment Tuesday and Wednesday.