EVERGREEN -- Conecuh County may have a smelly problem on its hands on its hands, but Repton Mayor Scott Dees said his town is ready to handle its own garbage.
Conecuh County Commission met in regular session at 9 a.m. Friday but, after more than three hours of discussion, decided not to sign a pending contract with a garbage-collection service. As of Monday afternoon, no definite plans had been made to collect residential garbage in any areas of the county except Repton and Evergreen.
Repton has launched a new service this week. Evergreen provides its own residential garbage pickup but residents outside these two towns are now without garbage service.
County administrator Ira Bradford did not return a call to The Journal Monday. Commission Clerk Donna Griffin said, "Right now, we don't have a countywide garbage service."
Repton's new garbage truck was delivered Saturday, Dees said Saturday afternoon. Collection is scheduled to begin today (Wednesday).
About 100 people pressed into the halls and doorways outside the commission meeting room Friday while an estimated 50 crowded into the room. Commissioners declined to move the meeting upstairs to the courtroom after Dees asked them to do so, saying the meeting had been advertised for the meeting room and it might violate state law to move it to the larger room.
Citizen Lorna Bland expressed what seemed to be a consensus of those gathered by commenting, "It's a shame that the county commission would hold a meeting this important in a room that would hold only one-third of the people who came to it."
Chairman Leonard Millender presided at the meeting. Commissioners Gerald Dean, Hugh Barrow, Frank Pate and Freddie Stallworth were present, as were county attorney Fred Stevens and administrator Bradford.
Tempers in the crowded room began to flare early, with citizens complaining that not everyone could be seated. Chief Deputy Dudley Godwin stepped in, telling them "there is a law against creating a disturbance" and warning anyone who disrupted the meeting that he or she would be removed.
Millender welcomed everyone to the meeting and apologized for the lack of space, then called on Rick Shulz, a representative of City Environmental Service Inc. (CES) of Dothan. The county's three-year contract with CES expired June 30. A renewed contract, which included a rate increase from $9.02 per month to $15.31 per month, was to be signed to take effect July 1.
Shulz told those gathered that he hoped to "disarm some hard feelings toward commissioners" in explaining the rate increase. He said commissioners had acted responsibly in contracting with his company's predecessor ISS Diversified to have countywide garbage collection.
CES bought out ISS in January 1995 and took over the collection. Shulz said rates had to increase because his company was losing money. When the commission put the service out to bid, CES came in the lowest bidder and was awarded a contract. "The county did what it legally had to do," Shulz said.
Shulz said total cost of collecting garbage in the county, which has 2,800 residential customers, is $332,000 annually. He gave the following breakdown of costs: labor, $96,800; truck operations, $37,000; truck maintenance, $45,000; container/compactor maintenance, $8,400; insurance and claims, $13,900; truck depreciation, $40,000 per truck, per year; containers, $140,000 (initial outlay); and disposal, $75,900.
He said CES only expects a 6-percent profit, or less than $2,000 per month, in providing Conecuh County service. He noted that 500 customers have Social Security exemptions, which leaves only $2,300 paying customers.
The terms of the contract were voided, however, when Repton and Castleberry decided they did not want to participate in the countywide collection. The commission received a petition on behalf of the citizens of Castleberry requesting that the CES contract not be signed.
After citizen comments ranging from complaints about the 95-gallon, wheeled garbage containers residents are required by CES to use to complaints about poor customer service by the company, the commission heard from state Reps. Jimmy Warren and Thomas Jackson.
Warren and Jackson said, if the commission wants it, they will introduce a bill in the special session that would put a referendum on the November ballot for Conecuh voters to decide if they want a one-cent sales tax to fund garbage collection. (Evergreen's present sales tax is five cents; Evergreen's and the county's sales tax rate is seven cents.)
"If the commissioners ask us, I'd be glad to put it on the ballot," Warren said. "We're here to help any way we can."
Jackson told the crowd, "I feel your anger and frustration and I'm glad that you're here. I favor letting the people decide what to do. If you want to vote it [the sales tax] up, vote it up; if you want to vote it down, vote it down."
He reminded citizens that they must have their garbage picked up once a week, adding, "It's the law." He added that the days of federal revenue sharing that made it affordable for county governments to collect garbage are gone. "The well is running dry," Jackson said. "If we want services, we're going to have to pay for them. If you want your garbage picked up, you're going to have to pay to have it picked up."
Dees asked the commission it to reconsider the contract, informing it that his town will proceed with its own garbage-collection plans, and asking that a 1-cent sales tax be considered to supplement a county garbage-collection service, with a citizens' committee being appointed to campaign for the tax.
He acknowledged that revenue generated by the tax wouldn't be enough to run the countywide collection service, but he suggested it could keep rates lower on payments citizens would have to make.
Commissioner Stallworth told citizens that plans being discussed were like, "putting a bandage on a chainsaw cut ... it is not going to do it."
Millender said, "I've been on this board eight years and we haven't had a single tax passed."
"That's because y'all have been the ones going out, trying to get it passed," Dees said. "The people have to get behind it and get it done."
After most of those who came to protest the contract had left, the commission decided to appoint a 10-member committee -- with two members appointed by each commissioner -- to make recommendations to the commission. The committee will meet by July 15.
The commission also decided not to sign the CES contract.
Millender, responding to a Journal reporter's question, said the commission has "looked at several options" since the two-town pullout arose, but that no alternative means of collecting garbage after July 1 had been decided upon.
Steve Mitchell, environmental area supervisor for the state Department of Public Health said in Friday's meeting that state law requires citizens to dispose of their garbage a minimum of once per week. And that this disposal must be made at a landfill.
Mitchell told The Journal Tuesday morning "everybody is on his own" in all areas of Conecuh County outside Evergreen and Repton. The county commission, he said, is "well within the law" because it is not mandated to provided garbage collection. "The law makes it the responsibility of the individual to make sure his garbage is disposed of in a legal and safe way."
Mitchell said he has only one employee available to do garbage enforcement in conjunction with many other duties. "There is going to be very little enforcement due to the fact that I've only got on man to do this whole county, the budget it tight and we are mandated by law to do certain other things that we have to do."
Those who do not dispose of their garbage properly could be cited by the health department, any law enforcement agency or another citizen could sign out a warrant charging them with criminal littering, Mitchell said. Those convicted face fines from $50 to $200.
Mitchell said people carrying garbage in open trucks to the landfill will be only a part of the problem. "I have visions of garbage flying out of trucks. That's one of the lesser problems we're going to have," he said.
Dees said part of the problem with the countywide collection is that an enforcement officer has not been consistently used to make sure all residents participate.
"It is impractical for each citizen to provide their own service," Mitchell said. He acknowledged that his department is responsible for monitoring participation in the countywide garbage service for the county, but added that other enforcement duties "leaves garbage enforcement to when we can get to it."
Barrow said individuals can dump their own household garbage at the BFI-Timberlands landfill near Brewton at a rate of $5 per load, but Mitchell said individuals cannot carry other people's garbage to the landfill. "That's for one household only," he said. "You cannot be a collection agency. There are legal requirements for collection agencies."
Several residents who said they live on fixed incomes said they would vote for a one-cent tax if commissioners would use it to drop garbage-collection rates. Many speakers asked why the county no longer picked up garbage like it once did.
Stevens said, "The county can't collect garbage for the price the contractors offered. You may think you aren't paying for it, psychologically, but if the county picks it up, your taxes are paying for it."
He added that there is not enough money available to the county now to cover the cost of a county-funded garbage collection service.
"We've had plenty of questions raised," he said. "It's fine to bring the questions but, please, bring us some solutions with the dollar-figures attached."