"We've got ourselves a contract," said Streit, who is also the chairman of the authority.

After working on the garbage contract for more than a year, representatives from Monte Sereno, Los Gatos, Saratoga and Campbell unanimously OK'd a deal that will give West Valley Collection and Recycling a seven-year agreement to service the West Valley cities. The contract goes into effect in March 2007.

Streit thanked the executive director of the board, Scott Hobson, and staff for their research in seeking out the best company for the job.

"We spent a lot of meetings on this, and well over a year doing what I think is a great job for all of our citizens," Streit said. Committee members Curtis Wright, a councilman from Monte Sereno, and Steve Glickman, a councilman from Los Gatos, agreed.

Hobson said rates have not yet been set, and he does not expect that to be done until 2007. He does, however, expect the rates to go up due to inflation by that time.

West Valley Collection and Recycling is a joint venture of Green Waste Recovery and GreenTeam of San Jose. It competed for the contract against Allied Waste Industries, Norcal Waste Systems Inc., West Valley Collection and Recycling and West Valley Industries.

Hobson said West Valley Industries was a new company that was being formed specifically for the contract. Because it did not get the contract, however, the company will not exist.

The West Valley cities have been contracted with Green Valley Disposal since 1997, which was bought out by Waste Management. The contract ends in March 2007.

Green Valley was the first company to be eliminated because its rates did not comply with what was requested, and it did not provide a detailed schedule, Hobson said. It was also the highest bidder, he said, and it was announced on Dec. 15 that the company would not be considered.

West Valley Collection is hoping to make a transition to doing all the work automatically, eliminating manual labor for the drivers. Standardized bins will help accomplish that, and residents will have the option of having up to three 96-gallon bins.

The authority will meet next on at 5 p.m. on May 4 at the council chambers in Monte Sereno to massage semantics in the contract. No members of the public spoke at the meeting on March 14.