BEATRICE – Beatrice city officials have approved an agreement to provide garbage service to the town of Odell in southwest Gage County, through Midwest Area Refuse Solutions.

MARS was already providing service for some rural customers as close as two miles from the town. Beatrice City Administrator Tobias Tempelmeyer says Odell officials had recently bid garbage hauling. "They've awarded their contract to the City of Beatrice...it's a seven-year contract. This was not a previous customer of ours, they were with a different vendor and decided to switch to us."

MARS is a self-supporting enterprise. Odell residential customers will start out paying a monthly charge of $16.50. The charge for a two-cubic-yard dumpster will be $74.24 per month. MARS provides 96-gallon trash containers to Odell customers. The current monthly fee for Beatrice Board of Public Works residential customers is $20.

Collection began the past week, but the cooperation agreement was finalized, Monday night by the city council on a 6-0 vote.