Archived Story

County talks cheap trash at budget meeting

Published 12:04am Tuesday, August 9, 2011

NATCHEZ — The Adams County supervisors found themselves sniffing out a problem Monday morning that was lying right under their noses.

Johnny Williams, a member of the Adams County maintenance crew, reported at Monday’s budget meeting that there are four Dumpsters in the county for which the county pays for pick up, and one is behind the board of supervisors’ building.

District 5 Supervisor S.E. “Spanky” Felter said he thinks the county paying an estimated $18,000 for the annual garbage pickup at those four locations is too much and could be reduced.

However, Board President Darryl Grennell said, that estimate is based on the number of pickups per location each week, and since the Adams County Sheriff’s Department dumps food waste in the Dumpster behind the board’s building, it gets emptied five days per week, increasing its cost in upkeep.

Felter said in District 5, he’s getting as many as 96 trash collections a year — or two pickups a week — throughout a mobile home park and paying the company he’s using approximately $2,300. So there should be a cheaper rate for the county, as well, he said.

“We need to call Waste Management and (different companies) and say we have these Dumpsters, and let them know what’s going on,” he said. “We’ll save money per year.”

In other news:

• The supervisors said they would appropriate the $119,262 the Mississippi Department of Health requested for the upcoming fiscal year — the same amount the department requested last year.

District 2 Supervisor Henry Watts said he’d like to know whether the department had spent all of the money the board allocated during the last fiscal year, as he had not seen any sort of report, but he said he felt that they were an established entity and felt comfortable approving their request.

• The Mississippi Department of Mental Health requested an appropriation of $77,143, which showed no increase in requested funds from the 2010-2011 fiscal year, according to County Administrator Joe Murray, and the supervisors said they would appropriate that amount.

• The Natchez branch of the Red Cross requested an increase of approximately $3,000 in funds for an overall appropriation of $8,000.

However, the board said they would appropriate the same amount as last year — $5,000.

The board said they would also deny Alcorn State Farmer’s Market an increase in appropriations from $2,500 to $2,750. Instead, they said they would appropriate the same $2,500 as they did for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

Felter said he was hesitant to say he would increase any appropriations before he’s had a chance to hear from the sheriff’s department about what sorts of increases it might need for the upcoming year, lest increasing other agencies’ appropriations lead to raising citizens’ taxes.

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  • http://www.natchezdemocrat.com khakirat

    I feel trash pickup should only be once a week and if people need to get more trash cans do it. This should cut household bills in half for we have trash on Monday but hardly nothing on Thursday and it is a wast of money to me and my neighbors. By the way, are all county paying their trash bills?!!

  • Anonymous

    Math class.  Same amount of spending for all budget items as last year = last year’s revenue – loss of tax income due to lower assessments and lower car tag income + dumpster savings + TAX INCREASE. Get those pocketbooks ready folks.

    Very interesting that there is an expected increase for the Sheriff’s office, consolidate their website onto the county’s already existing website and examine every other line item there closely.

  • Anonymous

    They don’t know, they are still trying to untangle the delinquent court fines, can’t worry about trash bills now.  Court fines $1MM plus, trash $13/month.

  • Anonymous

    I agree. The supes really screwed up by opting for the 2-a-week pickup vs 1-a-week when the new contract was signed a few years ago. I think I remember the supes admitting that they didn’t know a 1-a-week service was an option–or something along those lines. Hopefully when this current contract is up we can go to the once a week and save some green.

  • Anonymous

     why do you compare the unpaid court costs for the whole county vs the cost for trash pickup per household? That doesn’t make any sense

  • Anonymous

    Magnitude of where money can be gained for the budget = aggressive pursuit of collecting the massive amount of fines vs. pursuing the meager amount of household garbage collection.  If we both are astute, these are in 2 separate arenas within county government and those normally should be pursued by the department heads of each on an ongoing basis, however, it seems the department heads are not performing and are waiting for the BOS to solve their problems for them.  Garbage collection fees not being paid by individuals are also a separate issue from the twice weekly pickup issue that should be examined at the next contract renewal. There are a mass of potential areas where money is potentially laying around in the county government that may not be flowing properly into the county coffers as follows:

    1.  Garbage collection fees per this thread.
    2.  Delinquent court fines.  Look at daily crime reports for city court and see how many contempt citation arrests are being made for failure to pay.  Then look at the ACSO reports and see that NONE are being arrested for same when over $1MM is outstanding.
    3.. Circuit and Chancery Clerks apparently still maintain separate bank accounts for their departments outside county accounts, from which they can even pay their own salary.  Warren County was on news last night with Circuit Clerk owing county around $300K over 5-6 years – Shades of Binky Vines!
    4.  ACSO per their website maintains bond monies.  What happens to that money/property, etc. if a bond is forfeited?
    5.  Does the Tax Collector remit all monies to the county timely, recognizing a large portion of their collections must go to the state for license plates.
    6.  Any other county department that handles funds should be closely examined for similar situations to the above. 

    In my opinion, those department heads not getting the job done should be replaced immediately by the new board, and their services terminated, not just relegated back into a staff position.

  • Anonymous

    I agree.  Why does there appear to be a “rubber stamp” approval of amounts that are the same as last year’s budget?  As Mr. Watts pointed out, the board has not been provided an accounting for the money that was spent last year.  The wholesale approval of amounts which are essentially status quo, is outrageous.  I believe the board should be examining – in detail – every request for money and making their new appropriations based on those reviews.  Can’t help but believe that there are savings that could be realized.  To the Board of Supervisors:  PLEASE do the job we have elected you to do.

  • Anonymous

    Problem, last year is now since we haven’t finished this fiscal year.  They should however, request an updated estimate of spending for current year from all respondents when their next year budget is submitted.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Janis-Wisner/1113488095 Janis Wisner

    Why can’t the Sheriff Dept. donate their food waste to local pig owners? It’s been done in the past. Also, why do Kingston Community residents that do not use bins outside their homes and instead, take their trash to the local dump, be made to pay sanitation fees in order to get their vehicle tags?

  • Ham Bone

    You guys don’t get it.  We the tax payers don’t care about this budget stuff, just ask KC and the Sunshine Pumpers, all we want is a rec complex.  Budget? Garbage pickup? Fiscal responsibility?  Who cares, lets play ball, raise taxes and don’t worry about the rest.

    No financial reports, yet let’s give them money.  We made less revenue last year, yet let’s spend the exact same as we did last year.  Give me a break.

  • Anonymous

    Because they can put their trash by the curb on pickup day, whether they elect to use it or not.

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