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An UPDATE to this report can be found HERE which references an explanation to the actions of Council President Kelly Gross that was written about, below.

Five trash haulers submitted bids to service West Easton and those bids were publicly opened this afternoon. All bid on a 5-year contract. Figures below reflect the total over those 5 years.

Advanced Disposal was the lowest bidder at $551,471.

LMR Disposal bid $552,100.

Republic Services bid $595,757.

JP Mascaro & Sons bid a whopping $683,000.

Our current trash service provider, Waste Management, was the high bidder at an obscene $694,800. It was anticipated that Waste Management would raise its price from the last contract West Easton had with them, but they should have bid themselves out of the running this time.

I say, “should have” because it was reported to me that the representative from Waste Management remained in his pickup truck outside Borough Hall for approximately a half hour after the opening of bids had concluded.

He apparently had a reason for waiting. It was to meet with Council President Kelly Gross and it probably wasn’t to discuss the newest recycling technology.

When those who had attended the opening of bids finished talking among themselves outside the Municipal Building (during that half hour) had left, a West Easton resident, Peter Mammana, states he observed Council President Kelly Gross exit the building with something resembling a file or large envelope under her arm. She then got into the Waste Management pickup truck.

The Waste Management representative and our Council President then drove off toward Millers Hardware and the DUI Center.

Mr. Mammana’s observation is supported by his son-in-law, who was standing with Mr. Mammana at a distance from the Municipal Building.

“We felt something was in the air when the Waste Management rep just hung around and didn’t leave,” said Mannana. “We walked up the street and just watched. I’m not sure if it was a folder or a manila envelope under her arm, but she was carrying something out of borough hall,” he said.

This raises the question of why Council President Kelly Gross would meet privately with a bidder – the high bidder from the company she and Mayor Gross has praised at times – without the rest of the council present.

And what, exactly, was she carrying out of borough hall?

I would suspect that these questions will be raised at the next council meeting and they need to be answered.

I’m no lawyer, but if Waste Management is awarded this contract and I were any of the other four bidders, I would certainly challenge the decision in the courts.