The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Wednesday followed the recommendation of the city’s solid waste committee, rejecting the six bids it received in April and authorized city clerk Walter Osborne to re-advertise garbage collection.

After the meeting, Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said city officials have revised the specifications for garbage collection in the city to give every company submitting a bid in April the opportunity to re-bid. The board’s action also allows other interested companies to submit bids for garbage collection.

“I thought it (revising the specifications) was fair and balanced,” he said. “I thought what we did would give everybody an opportunity to give us their best proposal. I actually think in spite of the delay this is going to save us money.”

Flaggs said the new bids will be due June 1, and the city already has a verbal agreement with Houston, Texas-based Waste Management, which has the present contract, to extend the current agreement past the June 30 expiration.

“So there will be no disruption of service; it will be business as usual. We’ve got enough time to do everything.”

The board on April 17 took under advisement bids for garbage collection from six companies, Arrow Disposal Service, Express Waste, Metro Service Group, Riverbend Environmental Services, Team Waste Jackson and Waste Pro of Mississippi. Waste Management’s proposal was rejected because it was submitted after the 9 a.m. deadline.

The bids were referred to the solid waste committee, which on May 3 recommended rejecting the bids, specifying irregularities in each of the bids submitted.