Tombstone’s exit from the trash business has raised a stink among business owners.

After three months of negotiations, council members unanimously approved a 15-year contract between the city and Waste Management of Arizona, Inc., to haul city trash.

The city says that being in the trash business is simply too expensive for them, with a price tag of roughly $250,000 per year plus any incidental expenses that come from caring for the garbage trucks themselves, said George Barnes, Tombstone city clerk/ manager. Now the city can focus its energy on recycling, which they sell to Waste Management at a profit, Barnes said.

The deal means residents will now get their trash picked up by the private company for $17 per month per home, the same price they paid before.

Waste Management didn’t provide a dollar value for businesses, though they promised whatever agreed upon would be locked-in for three years.

“Waste Management has the ability to provide quality services at similar pricing and provide certainty into the future because of the scale of our operations,” said Jeanette Coates, a spokeswoman for Waste Management. “Commercial fees will be similar and based on the service levels required at the particular business.”

Business owners now have 90 days to decide if they’d like to go with Waste Management or another contractor, who would have to be licensed by the city following an ordinance passed at an Oct. 20 meeting.

But some business owners, like Steve Goldstein, fear that the public-private partnership will cause prices to skyrocket and leaves little other option in a small town.

"I'm a businessman, I know the job of a corporation is to make money for the shareholders. The city is not in that situation. The city is bound to providing a service, and not to make money for providing a service and covering the cost of that service," Goldstein said.

He added it “didn’t make sense” that the council didn’t meet with business owners prior to making the decision.

“The businesses are responsible for creating the monies for the city to operate, I’m not seeing any voice whatsoever,” Goldstein said in an address to council members, who was concerned if Waste Management could “address themselves to all the problems that could occur.”

“I’d also like to see definite rate schedules that would not affect our businesses negatively," he said.

Businessman Mike Carrafa said he was wary of the deal, but if worse came to worst he’d just haul the trash himself.

Carrafa said when he lived in Florida,“ their costs were so high I ended up buying a dump trailer and hauling our own waste a lot cheaper using our own staff. It was cheaper that way than going with Waste Management.”

He’s prepared to do the same here.

“I still have my dump trailer, and I already have a storage area in the back of Doc Holliday to store my waste,” Carrafa said. “I'll pull my dump truck up, load it up, and dump it myself.”

Tucson Waste Management Regional Manager David Brannon tried to quell fears at the council meeting.

“We’re not here to price increase anybody out of business,” Brannon said. “We all know that economic conditions aren't the best. We focus on operational efficiency to lower our costs so those price increases don't come as often.”

For city officials, hauling trash is just too expensive and risky, Barnes said.

“We want to get out of the business,” Barnes said. “We don’t do it as well as we would like to.”

Currently, sanitation services, meaning picking up and dumping trash, operating vehicles, and paying staff, costs the city roughly $225,000 a year, according to city records provided by the city manager’s office. That figure increases to about $250,000 a year including the debt for the trash trucks, Barnes said.

Now, Waste Management will take over the business and buy off the haulers for $182,000.

“It’s a lot of liability,” Barnes said. “We want to get rid of these trucks. Repairs are real expensive. We don’t have the budget anymore to do some of this stuff.”

In terms of price increases, Barnes replied, “We’re not interested in going into a system that’s going to raise the cost for the homeowners. Privatization offers a way to provide a better service at the same or lower cost.”

Regardless, the city council’s unanimous vote was met with some grumbling Tuesday.

Carrafa was doubtful that prices would be the same.

“Absolutely they’re going to go up. I’ve dealt with Waste Management,” he said.

Barnes thought otherwise.

“The market forces will prevail. That's the way these things work and that's what privatization is kind of all about,” Barnes said.