City of Prince Rupert to use Direct Award mechanism for latest purchase of additional curbside collection bins

The City it seems is set to access more collection bins, with
a Direct Award notice to that theme noted on the BC Bid website

The City of Prince Rupert is seemingly looking to add to the volume of curbside collection bins that they have on hand for use as part of their Garbage/Recycling strategy, with the City posting a Notice to the BC Bid website today advising of a Direct Bid decision.

The notice which was posted on October 5th outlines the city's plan to forgo the usual Request for Bids process and instead expresses its intent to contract with Rollins Machinery Ltd. for the supply and distribution of additional collection bins, as well as the retrieval, cleaning and warehousing of existing customer bins within the city.

The notice outlines the three reasons for the path that they have chosen, all related to the unique nature of the Rollins Machinery equipment.

The City of Prince Rupert's Notice for the BC Bid site
(click to enlarge)

The Notice does not specify the cost of the contract, nor which bins, whether garbage or recycling or both,  that it may apply to.

The Notice is required to solicit any objections to the City's decision, which must be delivered to the City on or before 2PM on Tuesday October 12th.

More from the city on the topic can be found from their BC Bid entry.

As we noted in August, the City had delayed it's planned September launch of Blue curbside recycling containers, with January now the target date. 

At the time of the new residential collection equipment rollout of the summer, many residents had also expressed their concerns over the capacity of the city supplied black garbage collection cans.

The City's Mayor and Council did have an opportunity to provide an update on the Recycling program and share notes on the newest purchasing plan as part of  Monday's City Council Session.

Operations Director Richard Pucci, who has been the point person on the Garbage/Recycling program was on hand Monday, ready to answer questions related to the recent storm damage, as well as the timeline for some road painting plans. 

However none of the Council members introduced the topic of the City's delayed recycling initiative at the Monday session, making for another lost opportunity towards some information sharing on the progress for the January launch, as well as to explain the city's current Direct Award plans and if that means an additional cost to the city towards delivering on the program.

Hopefully, Council will invite the Operations Director back for a future Public Council session for an update on both the Recycling project situation, as well as the progress and background on the ongoing construction work for the City's Dam and other themes related to the city's water supply currently the subject of the latest of Boil Water Notices, the most recent one issued September 22nd.  

Both of which have been topics of some discussion in the community over the last few months.

For more notes on the City's infrastructure themes see our archive page here.