County Garbage Pickup Cost Will Increase 37 Percent
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 you a password reset link.
WATER VALLEY – County supervisors approved a 37 percent rate increase for residential garbage pickup that will push the monthly charge from $17.50 to $24 starting in late April or early May.
The rate hike was adopted during Monday’s Board of Supervisor meeting after a new bid was awarded to Waste Management for garbage pickup in the county. Waste Management has provided residential garbage pickup in the Yalobusha County since 2013 and currently charges $19.05 per can per month for approximately 3,300 customers in the county. With the new contract, Waste Management will increase to $19.95 per can.
Supervisors settled on the $24 dollar figure after the operating expenses for the garbage department including labor were calculated at $3.62 per can per month, making $23.57 the break-even point for the county.
“If we go to $24, we are still cheaper than anybody around,” District 5 Supervisor Gaylon Gray noted before the unanimous vote.
Gray also noted the only other option for the county is not feasible.
“It is either this, or we levy millage (taxes) and still charge customers and go in the garbage business ourselves. And we do not want to do that,” Gray stressed.
The contract awarded to Waste Management also comes with big changes for garbage customers as the $19.95 bid is contingent on transitioning to the use of an automated side loader on the garbage truck in the coming months.
The automation includes cameras that will allow the driver to position the loader and will eliminate a second employee on the truck. This means customers will have to follow specific instructions including placing the cart three feet or less from the road. Customers will be able to use their existing garbage carts.
When the change is implemented, Waste Management will also no longer pick up any trash that is not placed inside the garbage cart. Waste Management will also charge the county $12 if a second cart is needed at a residence.
“We need to communicate through the newspapers and through the (garbage) bills to let people know the changes that are coming,” Board President Cayce Washington noted during Monday’s meeting. “We need to spend a little money on postage to communicate with people these changes. And the fee will be going up. We need to start communicating that now so people can’t say they didn’t know about it.”
Supervisors were visibly reluctant to increase the garbage rate, and equally reluctant to award the bid that included transitioning to automated pickup.
“I know this is inflation and everybody is going to gripe about it. But we don’t have a choice,” Gray said.
“If we readvertise for bids, I would assume Waste Management would still have the low bid,” Board Attorney Shannon Crow advised.
The monthly cost could have been much higher, Waste Management bid $28.95 per can if supervisors opted not to transition to automated pickup. The only other bid the county received for garbage pickup was even higher as Waste Pro bid $39.75 per can each month.
The rate hike was also long anticipated as the county is currently operating with a deficient for garbage pickup. The county current pays Waste Management $19.05 per month and charges customers $17.50 per month.
The deficient started last May when Waste Management’s annual CPI increase pushed the monthly charge to the current rate of $19.05 and supervisors opted to tap into the garbage fund reserves instead of raising the rate.
The Waste Management Contract starts with a base rate and also fluctuates annually based on the Consumer Price Index.
