Council members disappointed with city’s plan to keep Red River on in transition

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Fort Wayne’s NBC) - Fort Wayne city administration provided an update on the Red River trash troubles at Tuesday night’s city council meeting, but council members say they are shocked.

The city attorney briefed council members Tuesday saying they hope to ditch Red River in favor of another trash contractor, but that process will take four to six months. In the meantime, the city wants to keep Red River on during the transitional process.

“Your first question might be why in the world would we want to further compensate for poor service,” City attorney Tim Haffner said. “So, if we are to capture and use the equipment and red river’s services for a period of time to transition to a new provider, the bankruptcy court will insist that fair compensation be made available to the bankruptcy estate in order to continue the operations in Fort Wayne.”

It will cost the city to keep Red River on during the transition, even though the administration acknowledges the company likely under-bid the contract and can’t get the job done properly.

That’s a major sticking point for some council members Tuesday night who are critical of the city’s path forward.

Councilman Russ Jehl says he’s shocked with the city’s update to keep Red River during transition. He says the company’s performance has been failing for some time and the administration should have recognized that long ago.

Jehl says they should have been able to nail down an emergency plan with other providers to step in so they could drop Red River immediately. Jehl says, instead, he feels misled.

“Thirty days ago at the solid waste advisory board the same city reps told us they already had the plans they would bring in three emergency providers they already had the terms worked out on and the resources,” Jehl said. “Then today they come in and say oh that plan was so 30 days ago. That’s crazy talk.”

Haffner says the city made a claim with Red River’s surety company for 1.7 million dollars saying Red River was failing. They are still in the process of settling that claim. If and when that money comes through, the city will use it to off-set the additional money needed to keep Red River afloat during the transition period.

Haffner realizes that won’t sit well with council members who want an emergency solution that doesn’t involve Red River, but he says that’s not an option.

“There are simply no qualified providers ready to step in. I wish I could tell you that would happen,” Haffner said. “It’s not our desire to continue to compensate Red River it’s just the reality that we need to keep someone in business who can serve us.”

He says their goal is to have the process finished by the beginning of July. He believes all trash should be collected by the end of the week.

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