Cost Of Garbage Pickup Is A Deal

By Editor | January 10, 2024 |

DAVE’S WORLD
By David Howell

It looks like the cost of garbage pickup in the county will increase in the coming months. Supervisors opened bids last week for a new six-year contract for the service and the bids came in a little higher than expected. Waste Management, the current provider since 2013, submitted a bid for $28.95 (per can, per month) and Waste Pro submitted a bid for $39.75. There was a reprieve in Waste Management’s bid, if the company changes to utilization of garbage trucks equipped with an automated side loader, the cost will go down to $19.95.

That option was more palatable for supervisors, as the current rate is $19.04 per can per month, and the increase would only be ninety-one cents per month. But it is also brings a dilemma, there will be a learning curve for the county’s garbage customers if the automation is implemented. The placement of the can along the road will be critical to allow the arm on the side of the garbage truck to reach it. The proposed automation would also end pickup of garbage that is not placed inside the can.
With either option – $19.95 or $28.95 – the fee the county charges customers for garbage pickup will have to increase because the county is already operating with a deficient. The monthly charge customers pay Yalobusha County is $17.50 per can, and the county then in turn pays Waste Management $19.04 per can. The current $19.04 cost is under the current contract that ends on March 30, 2024.

Here is where the garbage contract gets a little tricky, as the amount charged by Waste Management also fluctuates annually, based on the annual CPI. To break that down, the base rate for the new contract will be either $19.95 or $28.95, depending on the supervisors’ decision, and then the cost can increase or decrease each April for the remainder of the contract.

These terms are also in the current contract and when Waste Management’s fee increased to $19.04 in April, 2023, based on last year’s CPI, supervisors opted not to raise the rate the county charges customers. The idea was to tap into the $427,000 surplus in the county’s garbage account to cover the deficient until the new bid is awarded in April, 2024. When the new contract is awarded, the county’s fee charged to customers will be adjusted. Stayed tuned on this, as soon as supervisors make a decision we will report on it.

The City of Water Valley is also facing a garbage dilemma. Back last July, then Mayor Donald Gray warned aldermen that a rate increase in the city is likely on the horizon. Gray cited the spiraling costs to dispose the city’s trash at Three Rivers Landfill that was pushing $12,000 per month.

Garbage was back on the agenda in last week’s city board meeting as Street Department Superintendent Michael Scroggins told city officials that a new garbage truck is desperately needed. The cost of a new truck could also drive up the cost of garbage pickup in the city. Scroggins said both of the city’s aging trucks were down a week earlier, and the only way they could pick up residential trash in the city was using a pickup and trailer.

Last year city officials solicited bids to see if outsourcing garbage pickup was viable. The low bid came from Waste Management and was over $23 per can per month, and that ended that discussion. The city provides pickup for almost 1,600 residential customers and currently charges $18.80 per month.

Scroggins made a good point during conversation after last week’s city meeting – folks in the city and county are currently paying a little less than five buck a week to have their trashed hauled off. That is a bargain. His comment made me think about the rambling around I do in the woods hunting when it is not unusual to find a gully with remnants of trash dumped in it from decades earlier.

Can you imagine the mess it would be now if everybody in the county was still dumping their trash in gullies?
Yep, five or six bucks a week is a pretty good deal!

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