Barrel Dispute Solved

Blue recycling barrels will be appearing in West Side neighborhoods later this month.

The city will resume distribution of the 60- and 90-gallon recycling barrels now that the City Council has settled a dispute with two vendors over supplying the barrels.

The recycling program - providing once-a-week recycling along with once-a-week garbage pickup - will be in place across the city by the end of February, city officials said.

The dispute between the city and the two bin providers halted the program in July.

The West Side neighborhoods include Mission, Ironwood and Star Pass, said Sam Chandler, deputy director of Tucson's Solid Waste Management Department.

East Side neighborhoods got their barrels before the program was put on hold.

Recycling on the East Side has increased to about 23 percent households from about 7 percent with the new blue barrels.

"As we predicted the recycling rate tripled," he said.

Toter Inc. of Statesville, N.C., will deliver 105,000 barrels, costing $3.93 million, and Rehrig-Pacific of Los Angeles will provide 67,700 barrels for $2.57 million.

The program was halted while the city sorted out complaints after the city switched the bid award from Rehrig-Pacific to Toter.

A court-appointed hearing officer had determined the city acted reasonably in awarding the contract to Toter and correctly determined Toter was the lowest responsible bidder.

The distribution schedule is:

Phase 1 - The far East Side got recycling barrels in July.

Phase 2 - Part of the West Side will get barrels at the end of this month.

Phase 3 - Northeast and one portion of central Tucson will get barrels beginning in the middle of November.

Phase 4 - North of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base will get barrels beginning in December.

Phase 5 - North Side and the other portion of the central area will get barrels beginning in January.

Phase 6 - South Side, South Tucson and downtown will get barrels beginning in the middle or end of January.

All the barrels are to be distributed by the end of February. - Tucson Citizen