Trash removal rates will increase; landfill firm OK’d

Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2004 | 11:18 a.m.

Boulder City residents will pay an extra $1.01 a month for garbage collection beginning Jan. 1, after the Boulder City Council unanimously approved the first rate increase for trash hauling in six years.

A Boulder City household pays $9.75 for trash hauling and weekly recycling services. That bill will jump 10 percent to $10.76 per month on New Year's Day, Boulder City Manager Vicki Mayes said.

Commercial trash hauling services are going up 15 percent under the fee increase. The city took nearly two years to arrive at the new rates, Mayes said.

In addition to raising trash collection rates, the council approved a new operator for the city's landfill in a separate action.

Waste Logistics of Nevada has been in the process of purchasing Boulder City Disposal, Boulder City's trash hauling company and landfill operator, since September.

The sale of the company was dependent on the city council's approval and its decision on whether or not to keep its contract with Boulder City Disposal under the new ownership. The company will change hands Jan. 1.

The purchase price is $2.1 million.

David Christensen, one of the owners of Boulder City Disposal, said it was a "personal, family decision" to sell the operation. The city owns the landfill, but contracts out operational functions.

Christensen said a 196 percent rise in fuel costs in the past two years and workers compensation that "has gone through the roof" prompted the company to sell the Boulder City operation.

Steve Kalish, the president and chief operating officer of Waste Logistics of Nevada, promised a "seamless" transition. The current 20 employees of Boulder City Disposal are expected to continue working at the landfill and Kalish said he was exploring better health benefits.

Kalish resigned in June as area president of Republic Services of Southern Nevada, the Las Vegas Valley's dominant trash collector.

Attorney Don Campbell, representing Kalish in a lawsuit filed against Republic Services "for certain interferences," said that a judge had issued a temporary restraining order Monday against the company. Campbell said after the meeting that he is seeking a permanent injunction. He did not discuss further details of the lawsuit at the meeting or afterward.

Kalish said that Waste Logistics operates as a contractor for Republic Services, hauling 10,000 tons of trash a day in Clark County, in Phoenix and in Lakeland, Fla. The company generates $20 million in annual revenue and has 200 employees nationwide.

Waste Logistics is expected to write a closure plan for the current Boulder City landfill and then study expansion of the existing site, Kalish said.

Boulder City Mayor Bob Ferraro said the current 100-acre landfill could be full in two to five years.

In his lawsuit filed Friday in Clark County District Court, Kalish named current Republic Services Area President Bob Coyle and former Henderson mayor and lobbyist Robert Groesbeck as defendants in his lawsuit filed Friday in Clark County District Court.

The lawsuit accuses the two of "bullying tactics" to try and stop Kalish from taking over the Boulder City contract.

Coyle denied the allegation.

"I don't have any knowledge of any bullying tactics the company has utilized against Mr. Kalish," Coyle said. "I personally believe all of his allegations are false."

Republic Services has filed its own lawsuit filed on Monday in U.S. District Court alleging Kalish is violating a non-competition agreement that precludes him from joining a competing company for two years after leaving Republic Services.

Sun reporter Alana Roberts contributed to this story.