Mayor Agrees To $750M Extension For Landfill
POSTED: Tuesday, November 18, 2008
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- After months of negotiations and controversy, Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton's staff has agreed to pay Waste Management $750 million to operate the Trail Ridge Landfill for the next 35 years.
Open land at the landfill off U.S. Highway 301 on the Westside is nearly gone and the city said it did not have time to open up operation of the facility for bids, so they negotiated with Waste Management, the current operator -- a decision that was publically question by City Council members and others.
Several other waste disposal companies said a bidding process would have saved taxpayers money.
Waste Management threatened to sue if the contract was bid out, saying it has a contract to run the landfill until it is full, so bidding an extention would violate its rights.
The City Council still has to approve the contract.
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