Concerned about the length of a proposed contract to handle disposal of city refuse, Claremore City Council members have voted to table a 20-year agreement with Claremore Resources.

Utilities director Tim Miller told Council members Monday night that under the terms of the proposed contract, Claremore Resources would lease the city’s old landfill site north of town, where it would construct a materials recovery facility.

“Pending contract approval, construction of the MRF will begin and it should be up and running in around 18 months,” Miller said. “The city would guarantee Claremore Resources a minimum of 1,050 tons of trash, out of which, they will recover the recyclables and dispose the rest.”

Recently, the city went from a waste management (quarry) landfill, at a cost of roughly $23 a ton for disposal, to Environmental Solution of Oklahoma, at a cost of $15.25 a ton. The move saved the city $120,000 annually, Miller said.

Claremore Resources will charge $16.50 per ton, but an additional $140,000 to $150,000 could be saved annually due to the proximity of the center to Claremore’s trash routes, Miller said.

“Also with this program, with our citizens doing nothing differently than they do now, the city will be able to claim a recycling rate of upwards of 90 percent,” he said.

Although Miller said the terms of the contract offered the city “multiple outs,” council member Mick Webber expressed concerns about the 20-year term of the contract, suggesting that a 10-year contract with five-year options would be more appropriate.

“Twenty years seems like a long time to enter into this kind of an agreement,” Webber said. “In that time, the technology involved could change dramatically. To lock ourselves into something for 20 years which could change in ways we couldn’t even anticipate, I feel, would be reckless of this body.”

Council members voted unanimously to table the contract, which will next appear before council on Oct. 20.