Sharon’s Battle for the Bin: RaeKar vs Republic

The City of Sharon is up to renew their trash services for residents soon and so far, they are the only city in Weakley County using Republic Services, however that could soon change.

The city received bids from both Republic Services and RaeKar and heard from representatives from both companies at their July 8 city board meeting, however the city’s trash contract is good with Republic through October and final determination will be made by the board at their August meeting.

RaeKar has the monopoly on Weakley County with just recently securing contracts with the City of Dresden, McKenzie and the Rural County route. RaeKar is already the provider for Martin, Gleason and Greenfield, leaving Sharon as the only city in Weakley County they have not yet acquired.

If the City decides to go with RaeKar, the start date would be Nov. 1. RaeKar is a Tennessee based, family-owned company that has been in business for a little over 30 years.

“We consider ourselves a community partner, not just a vendor. So if we were to take over service we'll be in this town on a regular basis doing things, helping you guys with your Corn Fest and, you know, anything else that you do. We'll be there to try to help to blend in financially and also have our marketing team here to help support those things on the ground,” Tommy Legins, Executive Vice President of RaeKar stated.

“We have supported Corn Fest for the last two years. We've done Teacher Appreciation Day in the county, and Sharon was included in that also. So there's things that we're doing over here already, even though we're not the vendor of choice here yet. Our customer is our priority, and we are a customer-focused company in all divisions that we have,” Legins said.

Legins promised resolution of issues within a 24–48-hour time period and making visits to city hall on a quarterly basis.

Legins stated that RaeKar’s residential rates were 52 cents higher, but that commercial and residential rates combined were $7,100 less per year and over a 5-year contract $61,000 less per 5 years.

“You don't talk about beautification a lot when you talk about garbage. But we're going to invest in all new carts and all new dumpsters. So each resident will have a brand-new blue cart with the phone number on the side. All the dumpsters in town will be replaced with brand new dumpsters,” Legins said.

Republic Services has served Sharon for the past 5 years. Republic has been in business for almost 40 years and Jerry Burke has been with the company for 30 years.

“We will continue to do what we’ve been doing. We’ve been here longer than anyone and we plan to be here longer than anyone else. I want to clarify one thing since we do have the contract: we are lower residentially over the 5-year period, but we’re about $31,000 higher over a 5-year term, not $61,000. That’s based on your current actual services that you have, based on the pricing that was turned in, so it’s not double that, “Burke stated.

Burke continued with, “I know $30,00 can go a long way over a 5-year period, but it’s not always better on the other side. I’m hoping you will see the value in what we’re providing and we really appreciate the partnership and look forward to continuing working with y’all,” Burke said.

The next Sharon city board meeting will be held August 12 at 6:30 p.m.