At Hanover Township’s last official 2016 meeting Dec. 21, council, based on analysis by the solicitor, voted to reject all the bids received for its 2017 refuse contract.

According to Solicitor Jackson Eaton, all the bids were deficient in some manner.

“The majority of the problems were insurance and references,” said Councilman Bob Heimbecker after the meeting. He went on to explain that the latest request for bids was a little different than previous years.

“We tried to open the criteria a little so that some of the smaller haulers could participate,” he said. “They seem to have missed some of our critical requirements. We did have problems with most of the submissions.”

Rejecting the bids put the township in a bit of a bind. The existing contract with J. P. Mascaro and Sons terminated at the end of 2016. Heimbecker suggested the township negotiate an extension with Mascaro.

Dewey Scott, who represented the lowest bidder, offered to handle the account for three months. Chairman Bruce Paulus was tempted to try out the lowest-cost bidder as a trial but elected to go with the existing hauler.

“There are too many potential problems that could arise,” he said in his final analysis.

A new bid request is scheduled for release this month.

“We will request replies by February, so we can decide,” Eaton said. “It isn’t an unusual situation that there is a re-bid in municipal contracts.”

There is no guarantee that Mascaro will negotiate a short-term contract. The company is the high bidder in the first round.

The council gave township Manager Sandra Pudliner authority to negotiate with a refuse hauler to cover the first three months of 2017, stating a preference for the existing hauler, Mascaro.

Heimbecker does not envision the township will significantly change the request for bid.

“We might emphasize that certain criteria are mandatory and failure to meet the conditions is cause for rejection,” he said.

Costs from the original bidders varied significantly.

“I was not expecting that we would have that much of a difference between the haulers,” he said.