Residential garbage collection rates in the city will remain the same at least through August 2026.
In a special-call meeting Friday morning at City Hall, the city council unanimously voted to eat the cost of an upcoming rate hike from Golden Triangle Waste Services, rather than pass the increase to customers.
Citing increased costs to provide the service, GTWS announced in May it would charge the city 84 cents more per household per month starting Sept. 1. With about 9,600 residential customers, the increase will cost the city roughly $100,000.
By absorbing the cost, at least for the next contract year, customer rates for residential garbage pickup will remain $20.95 per month.
“Everything is going up for everyday people,” Mayor Stephen Jones said. “I think we should eat (the cost) this year, and look at it again next year.”
The city’s latest five-year contract with GTWS began Sept. 1, 2023, when the service increased its rate considerably and cut its pickup frequency in the city in half to once per week. By the terms of the contract, GTWS can raise its rates each year on the contract’s anniversary.
Mary Ann Gilliland, general manager for GTWS, attended Friday’s meeting, where both Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene and Ward 6 Councilman Jason Spears grilled her over the need for a rate increase.
She pointed to increased labor and equipment costs, specifically citing GTWS purchasing 16 trucks over the last two years to use throughout its service area – which includes Columbus, Lowndes, Oktibbeha and Webster counties, Eupora, Mathiston and Columbus Air Force Base. Each entity is seeing a rate increase from GTWS.
“Pre-COVID, an International truck with a Howe body on it cost $198,000,” Gilliland said. “It’s almost $350,000 now.”
Gilliland also noted, answering a question from Spears, that GTWS employees get raises each March of “anywhere from 75 cents to $1” per hour based on job attendance and work performance.
“So, if everything went down (cost-wise), you would adjust and come back and say, ‘You don’t owe us as much?’” Greene asked.
“No,” Gilliland said.
Greene has advocated since May for requesting proposals for a new service, voicing irritation that GTWS can raise its rates each year through 2028.
On Friday, he put the question straight to Gilliland.
“Can we assume this is going to be the trend for the duration of this contract that we’re going to go up every year?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t think so,” Gilliland responded.
The city can terminate the contract with 90 days notice.
Spears also asked Gilliland to provide the city GTWS’s financials for the past five years. The service is a nonprofit cooperative of its members, including Columbus, so Gilliland agreed.
City Chief Financial Officer Jim Brigham said the city can absorb the garbage rate increase through expected growth in property tax collections next year. The mill value, the amount of taxes 1 mill is projected to generate, will increase by $3,000 next year. Since the city collects 53 mills in taxes from property owners, the growth should generate $159,000.
Garbage cans disappearing
During discussion over the garbage rate, Gilliland casually mentioned that city-issued garbage cans are disappearing.
“Any time somebody moves out, nine times out of 10 they take it with them,” Gilliland said. “So when another tenant moves in we have to replace that can.”
As part of the contract, GTWS provides residents a green, 96-gallon garbage can. The city secured 10,000 cans through the contract, but since some apartment complexes provide dumpsters for their tenants, Gilliland said only about 8,000 cans are distributed while the others are held in reserve.
People absconding with those cans, which are assigned to an address, not a resident, is whittling that reserve.
“So if somebody leaves, and they take the trash can with them, we don’t try to do anything?” Jones asked Gilliland.
“If we find them out in the county, we’ll pick them up,” she said. “Tracking those garbage cans is like tracking a needle in a haystack sometimes. They may leave the city of Columbus and go to Alabama.”
Jones then asked if the can cost could be added to a customer’s final bill.
“We normally don’t know that until a new tenant or a new owner calls and says, ‘Hey, there’s no garbage can here,’” Gilliland said. “And they’ve probably already gotten their bill and gone.”
Jones said he is encouraging more apartment complexes to use dumpsters, “instead of having 20 cans lined up” on the roadside on pickup days. He also reminded citizens to have their cans removed from public right-of-way by 7 p.m. of their pickup day, noting the city’s code enforcement office could start ticketing those who didn’t.
Credit card charges
In other business, the council approved adding a 3% surcharge for credit or debit payments made to the city.
In cases where private parties reserve city property, such as for an event at Trotter Convention Center, the surcharge is non-refundable if that reservation is canceled.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
