Dale County Commission talks trash fees

What to do about a garbage pickup rate that has not increased in a decade was addressed at the Dale County Commission meeting Aug. 17.

The year 2011 was 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. Blankenship also told the commissioners that about 10 percent of the can-holders fail to pay their bill and 228 customers have Social Security exemption from payment.

At that meeting Blankenship also presented the garbage pickup costs s 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.

“Again our revenues are not covering our expenses,” said Dale County Administrator Cheryl Ganey at the Dale County Commission meeting Aug. 17.

“That has been the case for 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 rate we are going right now we’ve got about two years (money in the garbage fund) left?

asked Dale County Commissioner Chris Carroll.

“Correct,” Ganey replied.

“We’ll have to raise the garbage rates,” said Dale County Commission Chairman Steve McKinnon.

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

“If you raise the rates, that’s fine but three years from now you’ll have to do the same thing again,” said Dale County Commissioner Charles “Chic” Gary. “I am totally not liking that.”

Dale County has a contract with the Wiregrass Rehabilitation Service for roadside trash pickup at a cost of $126,000. Gary 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.”

“That is a very valuable service,” said Wilson about the WRC roadside pickup. “A couple of years ago we cut it back some months and when they came back in January, they like to never got caught up.”

“Well, I’m just a rate guy,” Gary said. “I want to keep the rates as low as we can. “

“All of us do,” replied Wilson.

No action was taken by the commissioners.

The next meeting of the Dale County Commission is Sept. 14 at the Dale County Government Building. A work session begins at 10 a.m. and is followed immediately by a voting meeting. Both meetings are open to the public.