DC adds new garbage hauler in town

The Dodge Center Council selected a new hauler company last month, after the city council approved an amendment to its ordinance to increase the number of garbage licenses from two to three.

Since Hometown Haulers recently merged with Waste Management it meant the number of licenses in Dodge Center dropped down to two. In order to have three providers again the ordnance had to be amended.

In a memo to the city council, City Administrator Lee Mattson wrote “each of the three companies made a short presentation to the Council in which they highlighted specific areas of their operations that they felt best illustrated their qualifications to be selected for the license.

“All three applicants verbally affirmed that they understood that the license would be conditioned upon Wednesday pickup and all three also affirmed that this condition posed no concerns for them,” Mattson wrote.

Those companies who applied for licenses were Harter’s Disposal of Minnesota, LRS of Minnesota, and Aspen Waste Systems.

The city previously had two different haulers, with Waste Management and Skjeveland serving as the only two garbage haulers permitted to operate in the city.

Harters has earned licenses in other communities in the area as of recently, with the city of Byron deciding to add their services as a licensed garbage hauler. The move came following the merger between Hometown Haulers and Waste Management. Like Dodge Center, Byron has a limit of three licenses at a time.

“We are a customer service oriented, family-owned, local company that has been hauling trash and recycling for five generations,” Mathias Harter, the vice president of the company, wrote in a letter to the City Council. “Harter’s currently provides garbage and recycling services to over 150 communities throughout the state of Minnesota and Wisconsin. We service the City of Rochester, the City of Stewartville, the City of Austin, and many other communities in the area.