County Will Absorb Increased Cost For Garbage Pickup
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send your username and password to you.
WATER VALLEY – The county will absorb a rate increase from Waste Management for the cost of curbside garbage pickup. The rate hike from Waste Management was triggered by an increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is defined in terms of the contract the county executed with the company in 2018.
Waste Management has provided curbside pickup in the county since 2013 and supervisors awarded the latest bid to the company in 2018. According to the bid contract, the amount charged by Waste Management fluctuates annually, based on the annual CPI, and the company notified the county of a $1.02 increase that starts in April. The increase means the county will pay Waste Management $19.04 per month for each can. The county currently charges $17.50 monthly for approximately 3,300 garbage cans in the county.
Board President Cayce Washington crunched the numbers during the April 27 meeting and estimated the county will incur a $60,000 deficient during the next year. A $427,000 surplus in the county’s garbage account will cover the deficient.
The five-year contract will be rebid this fall, and supervisors indicated the cost could increase again.
“The way this country is going it is going to take everything folks make just to pay for their water bill, garbage and other bills,” Gray said.
Washington also cautioned that it is easier to implement smaller, incremental rate increases instead of one large increase.
“I am not advocating that we need to go up today, but what I am saying is when we do (increase the rate) it will be a pretty good jump and public perception will be that we are hitting them all at one time,” Washington explained.
The monthly garbage pickup rate in neighboring Panola and Grenada counties is $20.
Other actions in recent county meetings includes:
• Supervisors granted a utility easement for hospital property for Tallahatchie Valley Electric Power (TVEPA). The .38 acre easement will allow placement of a small backup electric substation on hospital property.
Yalobusha General Hospital’s Director of Maintenance and Facility Management Todd Hughes pitched the request, explaining the substation will provide backup power from TVEPA if there is a problem with the city’s power grid.
“TVEPA already has a line that comes through hospital property,” Hughes told supervisors. “The TVEPA line operates at 14,400 volts and the city’s electric department voltage is 13,200. This is a step-down transformer that converts the voltage down to 13,200.”
Hughes also said the hospital’s board of trustees recommended the easement and requested county supervisors to grant the request. The hospital is county-owned.
Hughes also explained that the plans include two more substations in the city to ensure there is backup power for the entire city.
• Approved a request from Special Master Daniel Martin to appropriate funds the county will receive over the next 20 years from an opioid lawsuit settlement to help with the mental commitments. Part of Martin’s duties as the county’s Special Master is overseeing mental commitments as well as drug and alcohol commitments.
The county received the first annual payment of $9,000 from the settlement, and will continue to receive similar payments for the next 19 years. Martin recommended the money be used to hire an attorney to assist with the commitments.
Martin noted that Chancery Clerk Amy McMinn and her staff have traditionally handled the bulk of the details involving mental commitments.
“But it is evident, it is very evident based on some recent hearings that we need someone to take this ball rolling from the get-go,” McMinn added.
The attorney’s duties will include interviewing the patient, scheduling doctors’ appointments and transportation details with the sheriff’s department for the appointment, as well as scheduling the court hearing.
“Basically this attorney will take everything off the clerk’s office other than the initial contact,” McMinn explained. “
“If you have watched the news lately, drugs, alcohol and gun violence is increasing,” Washington shared. “I want to thank Daniel for the work he does as special master and Amy, for the work she has done all these years to help with the process. We sleep good at night because they are taking care of these folks who are struggling with mental issues. And our sheriff, I want to thank him. He is in the trenches.”
Martin also noted that family members are an important part of the process.
“The biggest hurdle is having family members and friends who are willing to step forward and report their loved ones – knowing they are going to have some blow-back and repercussions,” Martin said. “But it is better that they receive help than to reach a point they can’t come back from.”