By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — It’s no secret that Republic Services in Tyngsborough has demonstrated its inability to live up to the contract it took over from JRM Hauling and Recycling of Peabody for the collection and removal of the town’s solid waste and recyclables — the evidence is scattered all over town.
And Town Administrator Michael Gilleberto was obviously frustrated by the weeks of fruitless communications that both he and DPW Director Joe Parisi have had with Republic as he provided an update to the Select Board Monday night and apologized profusely to the the town’s residents for this situation. All five Select Board members were in full agreement with Gilleberto concerning this transition to Republic as all six of them have also had their trash and/or recyclables left curbside.
While having recycling skipped two or three weeks in a row is a nuisance, Gilleberto pointed out that for some residents it has gotten to the point where the failure by Republic to pick up trash has become a public health hazard. A few neighborhoods had not had their trash picked up since Sept. 27. In those instances, the town’s DPW has been sending out its own personnel in dump trucks or rack trucks to take the residents’ trash away to one of the town dumpsters.
Under the town’s contract, both trash and recycling throughout the entire town is supposed to be picked up weekly on Tuesdays. But as Gilleberto pointed out, that has not been the case. He informed the board and the townspeople that Republic stated back in August that it could no longer pick up the town’s trash in just one day and must move to a five-day collection schedule. The T.A. responded that it would need this proposed change in writing since it was a change in the contract terms. Two and one half months later, the town is still waiting for Republic’s written response.
In an effort to facilitate this request, over a 48-hour period last week, Gilleberto stated that on their own they created a five-day pickup schedule, with a color-code map, which was provided to Republic, and the town communicated this change to the entire town last Friday via social media, email and Reverse 911 with the intention to have the plan to start this past Monday. Once again, Republic fell far short. Their trucks were seen in sections of the town that were not listed on the Monday schedule while completely ignoring sections that were included on the Monday schedule.
Gilleberto’s only suggestion at that point was to recommend all residents keep their trash and recyclables at the curb just to prevent it from being missed if Republic’s trucks should turn up on the wrong day.
Simultaneously, the town and DPW have been reviewing all of its options with town counsel on this contract breach and speaking with other trash haulers to determine the next steps.
The DPW has received hundreds of calls and emails from equally frustrated town residents and Gilleberto expressed his regret that they have been unable to return all of those calls.
“The way we try to conduct business is to return the call and convey the information. Unfortunately, at that volume level, we are just not able to. I ask for your patience. This contractor is not under the direct control of the town and it is not performing,” Gilleberto said. He encourages townspeople to continue to communicate their concerns to the DPW either by phone or email at trash@northreadingma.gov as the information they provide is valuable.
Gilleberto added the he is sensitive to the fact that all residents are paying a fee for this service and “we all at this table realize that that is exasperating” to not be getting the proper services in return for those fees. Whether the townspeople will receive a refund for services not received remains to be seen, however, because any refund may end up being needed to pay for another contract that would likely be higher in cost particularly because the majority of trash haulers are moving to an automated system which requires an investment into the specialized toters for both trash and recycling at a cost of about $100 per toter. This could amount to an estimated up front cost of $750,000 to $900,000 and is one of the main reasons the town had not moved to this method of pick up to date.
OFFICIAL BREACH OF CONTRACT NOTIFICATION
As the Transcript was going to press on Wednesday we were informed that a letter notifying Republic Services of its breach of contract was sent on Tuesday, Oct. 18 via certified mail, first class mail and email.
The letter is a public record and it is reprinted in its entirety below to inform the town’s residents of the actions being taken on their behalf to rectify this situation. Republic has 10 days to respond:
October 18, 2022
BY CERTIFIED MAIL RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED, FIRST CLASS MAIL, and EMAIL
Mr. Kurt Lavery, Market Vice-President Republic Services, 385 Dunstable Road Tyngsborough, MA 01864
Dear Mr. Lavery:
I am writing to formally notify you that Republic Services is in breach of the contract for the Collection and Removal of Solid Waste and Recyclables for the Town of North Reading dated April 5, 2006, as amended (“Contract”), which it assumed from JRM Hauling and Recycling earlier this year.
- Article X of the contract requires that the Contract furnish a Performance Bond with a penal sum of one hundred percent of the contract price. Republic Services has yet to provide such a bond.
- Article XII prohibits the assignment, sublet, or otherwise transfer of the work required under the Contract without the prior written consent of the Town. The Town learned of the assignment via the media and never received any formal notification or request.
- Article XIV required the payment of liquidated damages in the amount of $100 per each failure or neglect to collect solid waste or recyclables placed curbside by daily collection time within twenty-four (24) hours of collection time. The Town has received over 2,000 complaints since October 4th and calculates liquidated damages owed in the amount of over $200,000.
- Article 5 of Amendment #6 to the Contract requires that JRM provide one-day collection with rear loading collection vehicles for curbside collection of solid waste and recycling materials. JRM shall continue to allow any bulk items to be collected on route. JRM will continue with this collection method along with manual unlimited recycling collection with equipment as follows:
a. (6) Rear Load Collection Vehicles (Weekly Trash)
b. (4) Rear Load Collection Vehicles (Weekly Recycling) c. (1) Rear Load Collection Vehicle (As Needed Recycling)
The Town has generally been aware of two or three vehicles in Town collection portions of the Town at a time. At no time has Republic reported having 10 or 11 vehicles in North Reading, and as of today only 3 vehicles are in North Reading.
The Town and its residents have been more than patient as Republic Services familiarizes itself with our community. Unfortunately, since October 4th the number of promises made by Republic (and conveyed to residents by the Town) and broken have demonstrated that there is no improvement in sight. These include:
- In mid-September confirming that while multi-day collection was preferred, Republic had the resources to honor the single-day contract between JRM and the Town. Despite these statements, Republic uploaded information to its customer service database assigning North Reading a five day collection schedule. When notified of the schedule problem, the Town was told the schedule was corrected however customer service agents continued to report that collection was over five days.
- Informing the Town that when collection was not completed on Friday, October 7 , it would continue on Saturday, October 8th, and that the Republic Customer Service Center would be open on Saturday, October 8th. No trucks were seen in North Reading on October 8th and the Customer Service Center was closed.
- Providing the Town a five day collection schedule during the holiday week of October 10th, and then failing to complete collection of the Town by that Saturday.
- After the Town worked with Republic to develop a five day collection schedule on October 13th and 14th beginning the following week (October 17th), on October 17th Republic failing to complete collection of trash in the Monday area. It is unclear if Republic began collecting recycling in the Monday area either.
For the reasons set forth above, Republic is in breach of its obligations under the terms of the Contract. Pursuant to Article XV of the Contract, if Republic Services fails to cure its breach within ten (10) days, the Town may at its election at any time after the expiration of ten (10) days terminate the Contract. As set forth in Article XV, termination shall not prejudice or waive any rights or action which the Town may have against Republic because of any default or failure in performance of this Contract up to the date of such termination, and Republic shall be liable for any additional costs incurred by the Town for remainder of the Contract period, which expires on June 30, 2026, above the amount that would have been paid to Republic for performance of the work during said period. It should also be noted that pursuant to Article VIII, Republic is required to indemnify the Town for any loss, damage, cost, charge, expense or claim as a result of Republic’s acts, omissions or default, and that the Town may retain out of any payments due to Republic a sufficient amount to protect the Town against such claim, cost or expense.
Finally, please be advised that nothing said or unsaid in this letter is intended to waive any of the Town’s rights under the Contract or at law, all of which the Town hereby reserves.
(Signed),
Michael Gilleberto
Town Adminitrator
