By Rusty Nixon Correspondent
PLYMOUTH – The key word is “tentative”.
While the Plymouth Common Council took action on a contract for the city’s recycling and waste removal, it was, in the words of Councilman Mark Neidig, “…a tentative, and I emphasize tentative…” award.

In fact the Council will merely begin contract negotiations with Allied Waste, low bidder for the city contract for waste removal. Allied put in a bid for the service at $15.08 per household per month for service with Allied providing a 96 gallon tote to all residents and $13.66 per month, per resident to leave pickup exactly where it is.
While moving ahead with contract negotiations is a step forward for the service, Councilman still admitted during the meeting there is a long way to go in hammering out details of the service for the city. How the city will handle extra trash from a residence is a matter of some concern. While many residents have expressed that a 96 gallon limit is more than enough, others have expressed the opposite point of view, that it’s not nearly enough.
Currently other cities sell extra bags or tags for a slight additional cost to handle extra waste. The city will continue to look at possible options.
The matter of totes for trash also came up. While many Councilmen feel that the best solution for the city is uniform totes to help in efficiency and in keeping bags and less durable totes from breaking and leaving trash on the ground there was no real consensus on the matter.
The totes are another option that will be discussed during the negotiations with Mayor Mark Senter commenting that though he liked the idea of totes he also felt that, “…things aren’t going to change overnight.”
Currently three city employees work the city’s waste removal and one is scheduled to take a vacation in July and then retire. The other two are still weighing options but would be laid off from employment in their current positions.