The French Quarter Will Soon be Lemon Scented

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Following a month of turmoil, the question of who will perform sanitation services in the French Quarter and Downtown Development District has been resolved – at least for now.

IV Waste owner Sidney Torres IV said that, come Monday, his company will begin hauling garbage, cleaning streets, picking up litter and dousing the area with a patented lemon-scented spray that Torres became known for when he held the contract under a different company in the years after Hurricane Katrina.

In addition to regular sidewalk pressure washing, which doesn't always clear away all dirt and muck, Torres said IV Waste will systematically deep clean French Quarter sidewalks to give them a fresh makeover.

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“The actual dirt and grime is just deep embedded in the sidewalk,” Torres said. “We are going to deep clean the sidewalks so it looks like freshly poured concrete.”

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Torres said crews will start with upper French Quarter sidewalks, as well as the length of Decatur Street. The lower half, from St. Peter Street to Esplanade Avenue, will follow. Torres said he expects the entire sidewalk cleaning project to be complete by the end of February. This will require temporary sidewalk closures in early morning hours as crews move from block to block, but Torres said he is aiming to have them open by 10 a.m. daily.

Torres said he had received a draft contract shortly before noon on Friday and expected it to be finalized well before Monday, when the existing contract with Kellermeyer Bergensons Services expires.

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Mayor LaTo'ya Cantrell's administration announced it would seek emergency bids on Dec. 10, but kept silent after opening the bids in private and did not respond to repeated requests for comment. That left it to Torres to announce that his bid of $5.9 million for a maximum one-year contract had bested four other vendors who were invited to participate.

After publication, Cantrell released a statement on Dec. 22 confirming that she had signed the IV Waste contract.

"This signing underscores that, despite the challenges we face, I remain focused on doing the job and leading our city with unity and collaboration," Cantrell said in the statement.

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The emergency bid solicitation became necessary after the City Council declined to move forward with a maximum eight-year contract worth $73.2 million contract with Henry Consulting, which the mayor has also signed. Unlike the emergency bids, the solicitation for a long-term contractor was done through a professional services format that considers factors other than price.

The council passed a law in 2022 giving itself approval power on professional service contracts worth more than $1 million. Henry Consulting’s owner, Troy Henry, has filed a lawsuit to force the council to approve his contract, and Judge Paulette Irons on Monday ruled in his favor. She said any council power over contracting is strictly ministerial.

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