County supervisors have finally hired someone to deal with all of Lincoln County’s garbage.

The board on Monday awarded a three-year contract for trash pickup to Alabama-based Arrow Disposal Service Inc., which will take over the duties of grabbing garbage from the county’s households Oct. 1. ADSI will replace WastePro, which has come under intense scrutiny from supervisors after missed pickups and poor communication in recent months.

“We’ll draw up our routes with as little change as possible,” said Jimmy Moore, ADSI vice president of governmental and public affairs. “We have operational personnel who, prior to the start of the contract, will be here at least two weeks hiring, checking routes and finding us a place for our office.”

ADSI’s new contract will charge the county $10.35 per pickup at the county’s 9,119 trash-producing households and will not include furnished garbage cans, called “karts” in the trash business. The company’s price with karts was $11.50 per household, and supervisors were unwilling to consider an approximately $1 raise in citizens’ garbage bills to offset the costs.

“The service in the past has been in such bad shape I don’t think the people would want an increase in their garbage bills,” said District 4 Supervisor Eddie Brown.

Current provider WastePro is charging $9.44 per household, but county administrator David Fields said there would be no increase in citizens’ garbage bills. Supervisors will budget more for trash collection when they begin assembling the Fiscal Year 2019 budget later this summer.

ADSI’s price is 32 cents below the company’s May 1 bid offer of $10.67 per household. Moore said the company was able to discount the price after negotiations with transfer station operator Riverbend Environmental Services, which the City of Brookhaven hired for another term on June 22. Riverbend proposed operation of the station — a temporary sorting point for collected trash on its way to landfills — for $24.50 per ton, while competitor Waste Management asked for $28 per ton.

Supervisors have been waiting for the city to make the call on the transfer station contract for two months, as all the companies competing for the contracts in both the city and county have warned their proposed prices could fluctuate depending on the charges there. Waste Management told city aldermen it would withdraw its proposal for garbage collection if it was not awarded the transfer station contract.

Supervisors had hoped to award their contract last month, and the city — which also opened proposals on May 1 — has yet to award a trash pickup contract. ADSI is in the running for the city contract as well, and Moore told supervisors he expects aldermen to make a decision next week.

Moore said ADSI would handle Lincoln County pickups with four new garbage trucks and could call in backup from Meridian or Natchez if necessary. He took several questions from supervisors about the trucks, how fast they could be repaired and how the company would handle missed pickups.

“Our entire company is about service first. That’s what we focus on every day, picking up garbage at each residence on that route, that day,” Moore said after Monday’s meeting. “When you have a dedication to service, your service becomes quality service.”

Supervisors hope that’s the case, but they have a little insurance. The new contract will charge ADSI a penalty of $31.05 — three times the company’s per-household fee — if county employees have to pick up garbage from a missed household.

“We will see,” said District 3 Supervisor Nolan Williamson.

Supervisors approved ADSI’s contract on a 5-0 vote pending the removal of an indemnity clause. The board said they might consider amending the contract to include 95-gallon karts after one year.