Earlier this week the Fresno City Council voted to postpone awarding a multi-year extension to Sunset Waste Paper to handle the city’s recyclables. The company, based in Visalia, signed a five-year contract last year to handle the city’s curbside collected material.
Sunset Waste has invested $7 million to build a recycling facility in the city. Representatives for the firm said the company needs the extension to receive a fair return on the investment. According to local press reports the company would be willing to renegotiate a new deal that would be more beneficial to the city.
By a 4-3 vote, the council authorized city staff and a consulting firm to negotiate the terms of a possible contract extension with Sunset Waste officials.
Bob Hilton, with the consulting firm -- Hilton, Farnkopf and Hobson, LLC, said their firm would put together a plan to negotiate an extended deal with Sunset Waste Paper. He hopes to complete the negotiations by the end of this year.
Any proposal would not be binding without a vote by the council, council members emphasized.
John Mohoff, general manager of Sunset, said the recycling facility is the first of its kind California’s Central Valley. The facility is designed for single stream commingled materials. The recycling facility has eddy current separators, magnets, trammels and other equipment suited to handle a wide range of materials.
Mohoff also noted that the extension of the original contract was needed to allow the company to amortize the equipment and building over a longer period of time. Along with helping out Sunset with a longer contract, a longer contract would turn out to be a benefit to the city, which would receive a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the recyclables, as well as a win for the rate payers.
It’s a win-win-win situation, Mohoff says.