Residents steamed over garbage plan

County looks at mandatory collection

It takes Susan Henry about six weeks to f ill up a garbage bin, so she canceled her trashcollection service some years back.

That decision saves her a couple hundred bucks a year, which explains why she’s steamed at the latest idea from county government: mandatory garbage collection for about $25 a month.

“I have never i l legally dumped and I haven’t had trash service in three years,” Henry said to a crowd of more than 40 people who gathered to hear the county’s proposal Thursday night. “To me, this is a $ 300 tax. There is no need for me to pay $ 300 for a service I would use once every six weeks.”

Currently, about 88 percent of the 36,000 single- family households i n the county’s unincorporated areas pay $18 to $32 a month for private trash collection.

The county proposes to replace that system by contracting with a company for trash collection, then have the fee i ncluded i n Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division bills.

County off icials believe their plan will cut down on illegal dumping . County officials said they found 390 illegal dump sites last year while the Health Department responded to 585 calls concerning illegal dumping.

County officials have scheduled four more informational meetings about their proposal, but if the rest of them go like the one Thursday at the East Shelby Branch Library, they may want to wear hard hats.

“Why is it $25? That’s more than I pay right now,” Barry Clay said. “I don’t want this service. I don’t need this service. ... I don’t want the county in my life any more than they are right now.”

Whi l e Thursday’s meeting was civil, virtually everyone there had nasty things to say about the county’s plan.

“Why should we be paying an extra $ 5, $ 10, $ 15 a month because of dump sites? Can you prove to me that adding this levy is going to improve the community

THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL

by 50 to 75 percent? Because if not, it’s a waste of time,” Warren Frederickson said. “To me, it shouldn’t fall on us here. It should fall on law enforcement.”

Added Ja mes Will i a ms: “This whole thing you’ve presented this evening is to help the county with illegal dumping. It’s not to help us.”

Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, who arrived as the meeting was ending, said if the vitriol continues, other ideas may need to be considered.

“If it just appears to be overwhelmingly against this, we’ll have to look at other options,” he said.