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The Port Arthur City Council could vote Tuesday on a contract with a Beaumont company for emergency trash collection service.

City leaders said in January that they would open bids to bring in a heavy trash truck when needed within two hours of request.

In a memo dated Feb. 8, Director of Public Works Flozelle Roberts said Global Emergency Services, LLC. was the sole bidder to assist the city with trash collection on an as-needed basis.

If the resolution is approved, the company would provide emergency trash collection at a rate of $180 per hour to be paid through the Solid Waste Trash Collection Other Contractual Services Account.

The contract is part of an ongoing attempt to alleviate issues with garbage pickup, which came to a head last month during a city council meeting.

“In the last 3-4 weeks, the problem has gotten progressively worse,” Mayor Pro Tem Donald Frank previously said. “Citizens are up in arms, and we’re getting a brunt of this on a daily basis. When I left this morning to come to the meeting — I’m on the Thursday schedule. My garbage can was still out there full of garbage. My neighbor’s garbage cans were overflowing.”

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Staff said, at the time, only five of the city’s 12 trash trucks were in service. Several were in need of parts that were difficult to find. Also, COVID was impacting employees as those who tested positive and anyone they worked near had to quarantine for two weeks.

Part of a plan to alleviate the trash issue was moving to six-day schedule and leasing three trucks through two other companies.

City Manger Ron Burton said any outsourced trucks would also include personnel.

The contract will go before council at Tuesday’s meeting, which begins at 5:30 p.m. and is held at City Hall, 444 4th Street.