Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Monticello officials are concerned that their county counterparts moves to grant an exclusive franchise for garbage pickup to a private company and to extend sewer service beyond I-10 will hurt the city’s bottom line.
On Tuesday evening, March 2, the Monticello City Council addressed the two issues.
On the proposed franchise, the council instructed City Attorney Bruce Leinback to approach County Attorney Scott Shirley and ask the latter to include language in the Request for Proposals (RFP) that he is drafting that would exempt unincorporated areas just outside the city from the franchise.
City officials estimate that the Monticello Solid Waste Department currently picks up the garbage of about 70 to 80 customers outside the city limits, which service brings in between $17,000 and $20,000 annually.
This is revenue, they say, that the city would lose if an exclusive franchise were granted to an outside vendor. Their hope, in fact, is to be able to expand the service area outside the city if possible.
“If we picked up another 100 or so clients, that would be another $20,000 or so,” Councilman Troy Avera said, arguing that it was critical that the council convey its concerns to county officials before the latter finalized the franchise agreement. Mayor Julie Conley concurred. It seemed, she said, that county officials could insert language in the RFP to protect the city.
“We don’t want to lose the ability to continue to pick up garbage outside the city and to add to the service,” Conley said.
Asked how it currently worked, City Clerk Emily Anderson explained that the city didn’t actively solicit county customers. Rather, the city offered the garbage pickup service to county residents who were already receiving the city’s water service.
But it depended, she said, adding that it wouldn’t do to overextend the city’s solid waste department garbage pick-up service in the outlying areas if it proved to be not cost effective.
It was left to Leinback to get with City Manager Raymond Clark and come up with a description of the areas or streets outside the city that the city wanted to preserve or offer its garbage pick-up service. Which information Leinback was to convey to the county.
City officials also expressed concern about the recent announcement that the county plans to pursue a $2.6 million expansion of the sewer infrastructure from just south of the interstate to Capps on U.S. 27 and west along this highway to Waukeenah.
“It was a surprise to me,” Avera said. “I’ve known about the proposed extension to Lloyd. But I was really surprised to learn about this other. No one contacted the city about this. Most of the county commissioners hadn’t heard about it either.”
Conley expressed a similar sentiment.
“I was disappointed to read about it in the newspaper,” Conley said. “We need to request a joint workshop with the commission. We need to be at the table. I don’t know how it started or its progress, but we need to be brought up to speed.”
Councilman George Evans suggested that a presentation should be made to the council on the project before anyone started talking numbers.
Conley agreed.
“I’d be interested to know the route of the line and if people along the line will have to connect to the system,” she said. “I have a lot of questions.”
She said she planned to contact county officials in the coming days to schedule a workshop later in the month to address the issue.
County commissioners only heard of the proposed sewer expansion project last month, when Clerk of Court Kirk Reams and Caroline Smith, an economic development planner with the Apalachee Regional Planning Council (ARPC), made a presentation to the board.
The two spoke of plans to seek about $2 million in grants from the state to expand the sewer infrastructure 6.5 miles to Capps and then onto Waukeenah, saying it could create up to 200 jobs at the Truelieve medical marijuana growing facility off U.S. 27.
Conversely, they said, if the project wasn’t realized, Trulieve could well move its operation to Madison County, posing a potential loss of 200 already existing jobs here. The two presented the project as a joint venture between the city and county.
The total cost of the project is estimated to be $2,639,321, with the county and Trulieve each to contribute $75,000.