The Georgetown City Council approved June 12 entering into contract negotiations with Texas Disposal Systems for solid waste and recycling services.

The contract would be in place from October 2012 to September 2017 and would include single-stream recycling and separate green waste collection. Both services were requested by City Council and respondents to the 2011 Solid Waste and Recycling Survey, according to city documents.

City staff recommended contracting with TDS after receiving qualified proposals from five contractors.

"I believe that the information provided in the [request for proposal] process was [beneficial to the city]," Assistant City Manager Jim Briggs said. "The process was healthy from the standpoint of reaffirming what our initial thoughts were and our initial position was. The one thing I gained out of the process was that the second-highest proposer and the third-highest proposer in the proposals—Central Texas Refuse and Allied Waste—are quality people and quality firms."

The final motion said if negotiations between the city and TDS break down, city staff would move forward with negotiations with Central Texas Refuse and then Allied Waste.

Several community members spoke at the meeting in favor of TDS, whose current contract with the city for solid waste services began in October 2007.

"TDS has been the best recycling company of all," Georgetown resident Walt Doering said. "It's a great business, and great businesses are not only hard to find, build and maintain, but also to retain."

City Council also approved an additional $20,000 to continue using consulting company SAIC to complete negotiations.