Lancaster City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to award the city’s municipal solid waste disposal contract to Waste Management’s Richland County landfill in Elgin, moving the city’s garbage away from the Lee County landfill it has used under Republic Services.
The vote hands the city direct control of a contract the county historically managed, and city staff said it will cut both disposal costs and the risk to sanitation crews who spend part of every workday inside a landfill working face.
Three bids, one recommendation
Matt Berry, director of sanitation and maintenance, told council his department received three proposals: Republic Services at the Lee County landfill, Waste Connections at the Anson County landfill in North Carolina, and Waste Management at the Richland County site, also known as Screaming Eagle. A four member review committee scored each proposal on pricing, technical approach, compliance and permitting, experience and references, and service capacity, and called three references for each vendor.
Waste Management drew the highest score from all four evaluators, with totals ranging from 76 to 82 points. Waste Connections scored between 62 and 76. Republic finished last.
Waste Management’s proposal quotes an all in rate of $28.50 per ton, held for the first 12 months and then adjusted annually by the water, sewer and trash consumer price index. Republic offered $42 per ton with the use of an onsite trailer tipper, or $36 per ton if the city kept using its current trailers.
The tipper matters for reasons beyond price. Berry said the Richland County site backs trailers onto a platform that raises the load and empties it, which lets the city buy trailers without hydraulic walking floors and keeps drivers next to their cabs instead of walking across the landfill surface. Council Member Miller, who rode along on a haul to Lee County, said she saw both the conditions crews worked in and the equipment damage the trips caused.
Mayor Alston DeVenny said he would have supported the change even at a higher price. “Even if it were more expensive, if it’s safer for our employees, I think that’s the route,” he said.
Two Waste Management representatives spoke, including the company’s senior district manager for the Richland County landfill, who said the site handles roughly 300 trucks a day and averages under 45 minutes of turn time per truck.
Council Member Miller moved to approve and Council Member Marsh seconded. City Attorney Mitch Norrell told council he had reviewed the bidding but that no contract has been drafted yet. The county must give Republic 30 days notice, and City Administrator Flip Hutfles said that timeline should roughly match the city’s own.
The county’s share is still unsettled
The award leaves one piece unresolved. Hutfles said the county is stepping out of the landfill side of the business and will operate more like a private hauler, paying the city to dump at the transfer station while still providing a subsidy toward city residents’ disposal costs. That subsidy amount has not been set.
DeVenny pressed the point, noting city residents pay county taxes for a service the county subsidizes elsewhere. Hutfles said that if the county contributes nothing, the city would have to raise the rate it charges. He said discussions with county public works have been productive and that the new county administrator has been briefed.
Auditor says 2023 books are nearly closed
Ben Kochenower, the city’s independent auditor, told council the audit for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2023 is close to release and will carry unmodified opinions on the financial statements, on federal program compliance, on the schedule of federal awards, and on the municipal court schedule required by the state.
The audit ran years late after city servers crashed and finance staff turned over. Kochenower said his firm leaned hard on internal controls as a result, testing purchasing approvals, dual check signatures, supervisor review of time cards and budget monitoring, and found evidence that the controls were working. He said the audit turned up no indication of fraud.
He told council the city’s governmental fund balances rose about 10 percent during the year, roughly $1.5 million, and that the unassigned general fund balance stood near $8.2 million.
The goal now is to finish the 2024 and 2025 audits by Christmas, though Kochenower would not promise it, citing staffing limits on both ends.
Ron Brown, a West Street resident, asked during citizen comments what caused the delay and whether it affected 2024 compliance, noting that some state funds are being withheld. City staff confirmed the withholding and said the city has moved its servers to an outside vendor.
Growth briefing and a street sign
Lancaster County Economic Development Director Brian Fulk told council the county’s gross domestic product grew about 22 percent between 2020 and 2024, first among six comparison counties, reaching $4.2 billion. Unemployment sat at 4 percent in May. He said roughly 700 jobs have come from new outside investment in the past 18 months and about 1,300 from existing business expansions, with more than $500 million in prospective new investment under discussion. The county’s population has roughly doubled since 1980 to about 114,000 and could reach 162,000 by 2035.
Council also took up a request from Keep Lancaster County Beautiful to install signs at each end of Cunningham Street honoring Brenda J. Evans, who died Sept. 28. Coordinator Mandy Catoe said Evans’s family asked for a city version of the state Adopt a Highway program and inspired the county to create one. Her daughter, Toyia Witherspoon, told council the family already walks the street picking up litter and wants to keep doing it under her mother’s name.
Two annexations moved forward. Council gave second reading approval to Ordinance 026-09, annexing 0.13 acres at 1125 First Street owned by Maria A. Colina, and first reading approval to Ordinance 026-10, annexing 0.44 acres at 1340 Williams Estate Drive owned by William Curtis Cygan and Helena Queiroz Henry.
Second reading of the Williams Estate Drive annexation is scheduled for the Aug. 11 council meeting.
Source: City of Lancaster City Council regular meeting agenda packet for July 28, 2026, and video of the meeting.
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Thomas Hyslip lives in Tega Cay with his wife and daughter. After 27 years in the U.S. Army and Federal Law Enforcement, he retired to pursue his passion for teaching. Tom is now an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the University of South Florida. In 2 short years he has won 10 awards from the South Carolina Press Association, including first place in column writing, education beat reporting and best podcast.
