Allied Waste was the only company of nine solicited which submitted bids to provide garbage collection services for Covington County, Commission Chairman Bill Godwin said.

The original contract for waste removal was signed in 1993, and residents were charged $31.50 per quarter. The 30-year contract allowed for an annual increase based on the Consumer Price Index, and in 2013, the quarterly rate was at $47.31.

But the company was poised to terminate the contract because of the high costs of collecting refuse.

Godwin said the county was forced to solicit new bids. Allied Waste was the only company to submit a bid, and the rate beginning this month is $59.13 per quarter.

“We feel like if anyone else had bid, it would have been more, because they would have put their own infrastructure in,” Godwin said.

The county’s contract calls for 400 residents with low incomes to receive the service at no charge, he said.

The county has received a number of calls questioning the increase, he said.