WEST POINT — The City of West Point took the first step in looking to change garbage services at Monday night’s council meeting.

The council voted unanimously to notify C&C Sanitation of breach of contract with the city of West Point, with Public Works Director Mike Criddle giving a presentation that overviewed areas where the city should expect more.

According to council documents, the staff recommendation is to eventually move to Amwaste, the company that purchased Mr. Greenjeans, but the contract with C&C is still currently in place.

“They are a poor performing company, and I have met with them multiple times over the last year, probably about five times in person meeting them,” Criddle said. “They have got structural issues and infrastructure issues and that’s why I’m recommending … that we go a different route.”

Before the vote, councilwoman Deedee Williams asked what the city’s plans were in the interim for garbage pickup.

“It’s more of a process. This is the initial [step] to inform them that they are in breach of contract,” City Attorney Jeff Todd said. “This is not termination.”

Criddle’s presentation included a chart showing the number of missing trash pick-ups and recycling pick-ups that the city has been notified about over the last year.

Lisa Durden, whose family owns C&C Sanitation, said Tuesday C&C has not received any formal complaint from the city. She said Criddle regularly sends emails, listing customers who have called about garbage or recycling not picked up, but the company has received nothing else.

She said in many cases those misses occur the day after holidays when pick-up schedules change or because a customer forgot to put out their garbage for pick up.

“We have received no notice, no written notice and no formal notice form the city,” Durden said. “We have received emails from Mike Criddle but as I stated we can show where the accounts were serviced.”

She said C&C Sanitation has been servicing West Point since 2014 and estimates the company has a 95 percent success rate.

During Monday’s meeting, the discussion also centered around other sanitation companies that could service the city.

“It seems obvious that they aren’t who we want to keep, but are we going to put out a [request for proposal] or do we already have someone in mind?” Williams asked.

Moon said that the last time West Point put out a request for proposal the city received two applications — Mr. Greenjeans and C&C.

“The company that purchased Mr. Greenjeans moved to this area and started offering the service in Chambers County and LaGrange, and we feel like is a very strong company,” Moon said. “We will look at the available companies and either do a RFP or make a recommendation.”

Williams said she suggested putting out a request for proposal, especially if there’s only one local option.

“If we only have that one provider, I strongly suggest that we expand the search so that we are not terminating the contract with a bad provider and getting with one who is not much better,” Williams said.

Councilwoman Sandra Thornton said she doesn’t want to see trash collection prices go up, a sentiment the entire council agreed with.

In other action Monday night, the council also voted unanimously to end its tourism contract with the LaGrange-Troup County Chamber of Commerce. The termination is retroactive to June 30, 2019, and any collected hotel/motel tax funds will be returned to the city.