Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The Jefferson County Solid Waste Department will soon implement higher rates for its pickup of garbage from commercial establishments that deposit their trash in large rented containers on the premises.
The new rates, which will go into effect on Sept. 1, were approved by the Jefferson County Commission via a resolution and waste services agreement on Tuesday, July 19.
The new rates are as follows:
• Four-yard container: $40 per pick-up.
• Six-yard container: $50 per pick-up.
• Eight-yard container: $60 per
pick-up.
· 20-yard roll-off container: $100 per pick-up.
· Grapple Truck service: $250 for pickup of tree debris and no tipping fee; $250 for pick-up of bulk loads, plus the Aucilla Landfill tipping fee; and $50 per item for unauthorized disposal.
· Tire disposal: $250 per pick-up, plus the Aucilla Landfill tipping fee.
Additional fees apply for container delivery and setup, container rental and late payments.
Solid Waste Director Robbie Slack told the commission that the little feedback he had gotten on the proposed rate increases concerned confusion by some that the increase applied to the landfill assessment (it does not), and comments that the increase was past due.
The last time that the county increased the rates was in 2004, notwithstanding the increased cost of living since, Slack noted.
He originally proposed the rate increases about a month earlier, saying that his operation could no longer afford to continue providing the service at the current rates.
“Our prices are too cheap,” Slack told the commissioners on June 16. “Right now, we’re not even covering our operating costs. We’re going in the red.”
His purpose, he said, was not to make the department profitable, but rather to have it break even. As it was, he said, his department was charging less for its services than what it cost to provide the service.
Moreover, his competitors in the private sector, he noted, charged twice as much for their services as the county was charging, and in some instance charged more than twice the county amount.
Not that he was trying to compete with the private sector, Slack said. But the county had to recoup its cost at minimum, he said.
The commissioners were generally supportive of the request and conceded its reasonableness. But they wanted to allow time for the word to get out to the affected customers in case they had concerns about the proposed rate increases.
Hence, they delayed approval of the rate increases until the July 19 meeting.