Lincoln County supervisors were informed Monday that theircontract for solid waste disposal was about to expire and immediateaction was needed.

“There’s no roll over, no way to go past May 31 on this presentcontract,” said Butch Lambert, the county’s solid wasteconsultant.

Lambert said he discovered the dilemma while going over files onanother matter. He found the county is in its last year of aneight-year contract.

“If BFI has not called you yet (the rates are) going up, Ipromise you,” he said. “That means they don’t like thenumbers.”

The county’s 8,761 households are presently served at a rate of$4.65 per month per household to the transfer station, withdisposal from the transfer station charged by the ton, said CountyAdministrator David Fields.

Fields could not remember the per ton charge but said he wouldget those numbers later Monday. Officials need those numbers tocompare costs while negotiating with solid waste contractors.

The city, Lambert said, recently negotiated for a contract thatcosts $9.95 per household for two pick ups a week.

“We’ve got options,” he said. “We just have to use them in ahurry.”

BFI agreed Monday to extend the contract on a month-to-monthbasis with the same terms until the situation could be resolved,Lambert said.

Two options would be to send a request for proposal (RFP) tosolid waste contractors or to bid out the solid waste services.Lambert said he prefers the RFP method because it allowsnegotiation while the bid system does not.

“An RFP allows us to pit them against each other,” he said.”Competition always inspires lower prices.”

The board authorized Lambert to research the topic and develop acontract to bring back before them.

In a related matter, Lambert informed the board that althoughthey will have to formally withdraw from the Southwest RegionalSolid Waste Authority before they can create the new authority withPike County, work is proceeding on creating the new two-countyentity.

Lincoln and Pike counties are both moving forward with twoseparate applications for grant funds to create the new solid wasteauthority. Hopefully, Lambert said, both applications will beapproved and the grant funds can be combined.

The county can not completely withdraw from the old authorityuntil they have created or joined an existing entity. Last month,however, the county did formally announce its intent towithdraw.

Lambert said his intent was to sign a solid waste contract fortwo years, which would end when the contract for the transferstation would expire and the city’s collection contract would alsobecome due.

Those contracts could then all be combined and run togetherunder the new solid waste authority and help curtail costs.

“It’s all about volume,” he said. “The more volume you have, themore you can demand and the less the prices become. At some pointin that, we hope to link up with Pike County and have all thattogether.”

The Brookhaven Board of Aldermen recently voted to exploreworking with Lincoln County on solid waste authority plans. ThePike County connection would also bring in the volume from theincorporated municipalities of McComb, Magnolia and Osyka.