Garbage rate increase for county residents

WINSTON COUNTY - Residential garbage increased $5 a month per customer in Winston County July 1, after Winston County commissioners cited various factors and financial reasons behind the increase at their regular meeting Monday, June 30.
The residential rates are going from $14.75 per customer per month to $19.50 per customer per month, marking the first countywide increase in garbage rates since 2016, according to Commission Chairman David Cummings.
Cummings, District 1 Commissioner Rutger Hyche and District 2 Commissioner Roger Hayes each discussed factors behind the need for the increase before taking the vote.
Hyche recognized Sanitation Department Supervisor Misty Collins, in the audience at the commission meeting, for her work in helping commissioners arrive at the necessary prices the increase needed to be in order to offset certain expenses the county is facing.  He also praised Collins or her work finding uncollected garbage bills.
“I had the privilege of spending the last two-and-a-half weeks with her.  In the Black Pond area alone, east of the Sipsey River bridge, we found over 400 different residences that weren’t being billed,” Hyche emphasized.
“Our system was definitely outdated,” added Hyche, “and we’re working to correct that. 
“Without you doing your hard work, we wouldn’t have been able to make the educated decision we’re going to have to make today,” Hyche continued.
Hayes, who dealt with residents not paying for garbage collection services for years while he was commission chairman, then stressed, “We’ve been losing money and we don’t have the money in the general fund for subsidizing our sanitation. We never have.”
At one point, the county was facing over a $600,000 loss from customers not paying for garbage collection services, over about a 10-year period, Hayes emphasized.
“We actually took them to court,” Hayes said. “It’s a criminal offense in Winston County, but we worked through the DA’s office.”
These losses kept the county from being able to purchase needed equipment, Hayes added.
Hayes stressed it was important for everyone to be on board paying their garbage bills or, as the county did in the past, they would have to carry the non-payers to court.
Cullman Electric Co-op, Hayes continued, charges a certain percentage each month on customers’ bills on the county’s east side to subsidize garbage collection service.  Alabama Power does not offer that service in its coverage area within the county, it was noted.
Cummings explained that Cullman Electric will now be charging each of their customers $19.50 per bill for county garbage collection services, then turn around and charge the county at least 80 cents per customer to collect it.
The county’s cost to dispose of garbage has increased, with some landfills being closed down, Hayes explained.
“Nobody wants a landfill in the county,” Hayes stressed. “So you are going to have to pay a higher garbage rate.
“If you’ve got a landfill in your county, you’re going to have a cheaper garbage rate. That’s just the way it is,” Hayes emphasized.
“It has to do with the high cost of transporting (garbage to a landfill),” Hayes stated, citing the higher costs of diesel fuel.
“I was on the road the other day, and it was $3.95 a gallon,” Hayes cited. “We wrecked (a garbage truck). We paid $125,000 for that.  To replace that same vehicle was $191,000.
“We can’t keep losing money, so we’ve got to go up,” Hayes continued. “It’s not something we just love to do.”
Cummings interjected he wanted to talk about the increase before the commission made a motion to approve it.
“We have not taken this lightly,” Cummings then stated. “We know we had some kind of move we had to make. As a county, we don’t bring in enough to pay the bills.  Whether it’s your home, your business or county government, you’ve got a problem, you’ve got to regroup.
“The first of May, we went up on all of the entities bringing trash to our transfer station because we were losing money there, as well,” Cummings added.
The cost of transporting garbage to the transfer station is now $55 per ton, according to Cummings.
The closure of the landfill the county had been using for disposal heavily factored into the commission’s decision to raise the rates, Cummings said.
“It’s going to be an additional 30-minute drive to the new one, so expenses are going up, not only on the operation, but the tonnage prices are going up,” Cummings pointed out. 
The transfer station at Dora will be closing, with the county soon transferring its garbage collections to West Jefferson for disposal, Cummings explained.
“We take garbage from a lot of towns and Marion County,” he added.   
Also, the county had to consider the increasing costs of operating the sanitation department, Cummings further explained.
“We have 19 sanitation employees. Every two weeks, that’s a pretty healthy salary that you have to write a check,” Cummings  stated. “What we were bringing in was not enough.”
Cummings then told the audience the commission considered two options.
“We could go up to $19.50 (per month) and make this work, or we could close sanitation and lease it out to somebody, and they come in and charge $28 to $34 a month,” Cummings said.
“So, to save the residents money and to keep employees working for the county, we decided to increase this to $19.50 a month to make this work out, to keep employees working and to keep the customers’ rates as low as possible.”
Hayes then asked how the increase would be used in the county, to which Cummings responded, “We’re going to do it internal. We are not going to make it in a meeting.
“We’re going to put 50 cents toward maintenance. We’re going to split this up, to try to buy some better equipment,” Cummings added.
Hayes then made a motion to approve the rate increase, with Hyche seconding the motion, and all commissioners voting in favor.