Oak Park has renewed its deal with Lakeshore Recycling Systems to keep the Chicagoland-based garbage collector as the village’s waste management contractor for two more years.
The Oak Park village board voted 6-1 to approve the extension, as trustees felt that the offer the company put on the table was strong enough to make it worth skipping an open bidding process.
Incentives the company offered included increasing leaf collection from six to eight weeks without an additional charge, committing to replacing “legacy” garbage carts over the summer and increased customer service through an online “resident request portal.”
The contract to manage trash, recycling, composting and yard waste for Oak Park will be worth $3.8 million for 2027.
The vote came after village trustees had given LRS less than a resounding endorsement when LRS Area Vice President George Strom came before the board to give a presentation at a meeting in January.
One board member who changed his position on the contract was trustee Brian Straw. In January Straw said he wanted to see a “competitive bid process” for the village’s waste hauling deal. Straw cited surging oil prices caused by the U.S. and Israel’s month-old war with Iran as a significant factor in him changing his vote.
“I still think that, generally speaking, going through competitive bidding processes is what you want to do, but I think in this current environment I am likely to support the two-year extension of the current agreement, and that’s for a couple of reasons,” Straw said. “If we’re going to be going out to bid in a cost climate that’s going to factor in those increases in fuel costs when fuel and labor are the two driving costs, I think that we’re going to see much higher bids this summer, unless something real surprising happens in the Strait of Hormuz. So, I think that for me is one of the biggest factors that has me tending towards this agreement.”
LRS has been Oak Park’s waste hauler since 2022, when the company was the only hauler to bid for the contract besides Waste Management, who’d held Oak Park’s garbage hauling contract for more than 20 years by that point. At the time, Waste Management was seeking a rate increase for Oak Park customers while LRS was not looking to increase rates.
Trustee Jim Taglia was the only trustee to oppose accepting LRS’ offer of a contract extension. More residents complain about LRS’ service than complained about Waste Management, he said.
“I think we need to look at these, look at the market, test the market, see what’s out there, because we have a lot of complaints that continue to come in,” Taglia said.
Village staff had also encouraged the board to extend the contract to 2028 because that is when the deal governing Oak Park’s membership in the West Cook County regional disposal project expires. If the village were to seek a new waste hauler, it’d be easier to do so as the deal expires, according to Public Works Director Rob Sproule.
“That relationship is up for renewal in 2028 and we think that that’s an excellent time to review our current hauling contract,” Sproule said. “There may be opportunities at that time to step away from that regional hauling contract and actually sign with disposal provided by a hauler at that time that may actually be advantageous for the village.”