Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 20, 1993 TAG: 9310200157
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KAREN BARNES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
Few details are available about the ongoing investigation, and Updike would not comment.
Board Chairman Anthony Ware would not discuss the investigation, saying the matter has been brought up in executive, or closed-door, session.
Supervisor James Teass said the county official approached was not a member of the board.
After the county asked for bids to operate its landfill this summer, it received only one bid to compete against a county-designed plan - from L.J. Bays Inc.
The board voted to accept the county's bid, ending Bays' decades-long relationship with the landfill.
Under a contract signed in March 1992, L.J. Bays Inc. was paid $250,500.53 for the first year of hauling trash and managing the landfill, with the promise of as much as a 4 percent increase in pay the following year. That translates into more than $20,800 in revenue each month.
Although L.J. Bays Inc. lost the landfill contract, the county retained the company to pick up recyclables. Under the terms of the contract, L.J. Bays Inc. would be paid $79 for each leased recycling container, plus $60 in disposal fees for each container. The contract ends June 30, 1994.
L.J. Bays was out of town and could not be reached for comment, but his son, Basil, said the company did nothing improper in its negotiations with the county.
"We've been in business for 45 years and we don't conduct business that way," he said. "We didn't make any offers except what we turned in on paper."
Bays said that his family's company turned in an initial bid Aug. 4, but after the county changed its guidelines, a new, lower bid was submitted. The first bid totaled $810,000, while the second bid knocked $266,000 off that price, bringing the bottom line to $544,300 to run the landfill for two years.
The Board of Supervisors and Bays have enjoyed a close working relationship over the years.
In 1991, the board voted to renegotiate Bays' landfill contract and not take competitive bids from other companies to handle the closing of the old landfill. Normally, the supervisors would have to accept sealed bids.
The resulting contract gave Bays a 10 percent increase over the previous agreement and assured that the company would operate the landfill through its closure and the opening of the county's new landfill.
The county closed its old landfill Oct. 9 in compliance with state and federal regulations. The county will operate the new landfill, which is almost complete. Garbage from the county is being dumped in the city's landfill until the county gets a permit for the new facility.
by CNB