First time in a decade: Dale County raises trash fees

The garbage pickup rate in Dale County has increased for the first time in a decade.

At the Dale County Commission meeting Oct. 12, the rate was raised from $14 to $18 a month, with a 5 percent discount for one payment yearly of $205.20.

For each additional 95-gallon cart a household has, the yearly fee is $168 or $14 a month. Payment on all solid waste bills is due by 4 p.m. on the 15^thof each month. After the 15^th, a charge of $5 will be added to all unpaid accounts.

If the entire balance is not paid by the 15^thof the month, the account will be turned over to the Dale County Compliance Officer for collection. 

A drop box is provided on the left wall on the front patio of the Dale County Government Building, which is located at the intersection of Highways 231 and 123 in Ozark. 

This rate change is the first since 2011 when the county garbage pickup rate changed from $12 per can each month to $14 per can each month. Two years later Mark Dunning Industries was awarded the garbage pickup contract for Dale County when the county decided to privatize garbage pickup in 2013.

MDI began distributing the 95-gallon rollout garbage carts in Dale County in December 2014 and began weekly household garbage pickup services in February 2015 to those in the Dale County Solid Waste service area at that time to include the city of Level Plains and the town of Clayhatchee. The city of Daleville has a separate garbage pickup service provider.

The MDI contract was rebid in April 2019 after then-Dale County Commission Chairman Mark Blankenship told commissioners that MDI had asked to renegotiate the contract. With MDI requesting material changes in the original contract, it was required by law that the contract be rebid.

After the contract was re-awarded to MDI, who presented the lowest of three bids received, Blankenship compiled the cost versus expense analysis for the commission.

At the May 1, 2020 meeting, Blankenship said that the county charges each customer $14 a month for the first can and $10 a month if they have a second can. Full monthly collection for the 5,890 cans was at that time $84,590. 

At that meeting Blankenship also presented the garbage pickup costs charged by Ozark, Ariton, Daleville, Henry County, Abbeville, Coffee County and Barbour County, all of which were higher than charged by Dale County.

At the May 2020 commission meeting Blankenship recommended a rate increase to $17 per can for the first can and $13 for each customer’s second can in an effort to keep from depleting the garbage fund. With $113,063 budgeted for office operations in the 2019-2020 budget, the amount of garbage pickup expense over garbage pickup left $48,677 in the garbage fund. “At the current rate, it will take about seven years for the garbage fund to be depleted,” Blankenship said at that time.

In May 2020 the commission took no action on Blankenship’s recommendation but the issue resurfaced at the commission meeting Aug. 17 of this year. At that meeting Dale County Administrator Cheryl Ganey reminded the commission that the expenses again exceeded revenues in the garbage department.

 “That has been the case for the last two years since we had the increase in rates for our pickup service,” Ganey told commissioners as she discussed preliminary budget numbers in anticipation of the next fiscal year. “So what we have to do is go into our garbage fund balance—which is dwindling every year.”

At the Aug. 17 meeting Dale County Commissioner Chris Carroll noted that at the rate the department’s expenses were exceeding revenues, the fund would be depleted in two years.

At that same meeting, Dale County Commission Chairman Steve McKinnon said that having to raise the garbage rates was inevitable in order to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ money.

Dale County Commissioner Frankie Wilson had agreed. “We drug our feet on that. When we had a rate increase from MDI we should have increased the rate.”

Dale County also has a contract with the Wiregrass Rehabilitation Service for roadside trash pickup at a cost of $126,000. Dale County Commissioner Charles “Chic” Gary had suggested that that payment amount should be reconsidered prior to imposing a garbage fee increase. “We have a roadside pickup (contract) that we can adjust and that’s $10,000 a month—so we need to look at trimming that and then look at rate increases.” No commission action was taken on Gary’s suggestion.

The next meeting of the Dale County Commission is Oct. 26 in the government building in Ozark. A work session begins at 10 a.m. and is followed immediately by a voting meeting. Both meetings are open to the public.