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ALPENA -- The Northeast Michigan Materials Management Authority (NMMMA) is a month away from re-awarding a bid for the new materials recovery facility (MRF) that will be constructed near the intersection of M-32 and Airport Road in
Alpena.
According to Bailey Barr, NMMMA executive director, the NMMMA board will open bid applications on Oct. 9 at 3 p.m. at City Hall in Alpena. He added that the board will bring those recommendations to the next NMMMA meeting on Oct. 22. At that time, the board will award the bid to the respective contracting company.
The construction will have to be completed by 2027.
"We will be bringing recommendations to the board, who we will award bids to," he said. "If we do award someone on Oct. 22 ... has to be completed by Nov. 12, 2027."
Barr said that once the building is constructed, Machine X, the company that NMMMA purchased new equipment from in September 2025, will start installing equipment. This process could take two to three months.
With this estimated timeline, Barr said that the MRF will likely be operational by January or February of 2028 "if everything stays on track."
He added that the contracting company is "good to go" to start construction on the MRF as soon as the request for proposal (RFP) is awarded.
NMMMA had awarded the original RFP to Devere Industrial, LLC for $3.9 million. The authority awarded the project bid to Devere in December 2025.
This bid added an additional $500,000 to $700,000 to the original cost estimate NMMMA had projected earlier in the project’s lifespan.
Barr told The News in February that the authority and Devere were working to lower the final project cost to $3.2 million. However, the budget cuts were not enough to get the authority back on budget.
NMMMA had only received one bid for the proposal. This time around, Barr said NMMMA is working with the City of Alpena engineering department to facilitate the bid process.
He explained that the board held a meeting a week after the RFP went live in August with prospective contractors. He said that the meeting was mandatory to be considered for the RFP.
"We held a meeting a week after the bid was released ... just a way to see how much interest is there," Barr said. "Any general contractor interested had to join the online call to be eligible to submit a bid."
Barr added that any proposal submitted by a contractor who had not attended that online call will have their application "automatically tossed."
In total, Barr said that nine contractors attended the meeting, though only three were local companies.
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GLASS BUNKER
The NMMMA board approved spending $10,000 to install a glass bunker to hold glass recyclables until they are transported to Amrize. The cement company crushes the glass and uses it as a silica replacement.
Barr said that the bunker will “improve efficiency" so glass can be held and NMMMA does not have to take glass to Amrize every time a bin is full. He added that Alcona and Iosco only receive a 100 pounds or so at a time of recyclable glass.
"We bring back their containers, they don't have containers like we have in Alpena," he said.
He said that the bunker will save NMMMA from running to Amrize to drop off small amounts of glass.
Amrize is donating a cement pad for the bunker to sit on.
MOOSE LODGE AGREEMENT
NMMMA signed a five-year agreement with the Moose Lodge to continue to host NMMMA recyclable bins. He said this agreement will allow NMMMA to start making improvements to the recycling area at the lodge.
He explained that NMMMA will install a cement pad for the bins to sit on and install security cameras. The board discussed the possibility of paving the area, but the cost would be approximately $70,000, which Barr said is too expensive for the recycling company to pay upfront at this moment.
RECYCLING ETTIQUITE
Barr said that NMMMA has experienced a number of issues of community members throwing trash in with the recyclables. Most recently, Barr explained 12 bags of clothing were thrown in with the recycling at the Moose Lodge location.
"There are other avenues to go about that," Barr said.
He said he believes the "misconception" is that people assume that the recycling is free so they use it as a free trash disposal. However, he wants the community to remember that at the end of the day, recycling is paid for by tax payers, therefore costing employees labor to sort through trash.
"The biggest misconception, 'I don't have to pay for this.' This is a tax funded program," he said.
Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.