De-annexed areas lose city trash services
The city of Memphis won’t be picking up trash anymore in the newly de-annexed areas of South Cordova, Windyke and Rocky Point.
And community leaders who are hustling to ensure that residents are signed up for private solid waste collection fear that some in the neighborhoods might wake up in early 2021 without any trash service at all.
“The work of the leadership of our association has really been trying to get people prepared and knowledgeable about the transition of services such as garbage,” said Doyle Silliman, president of the Windyke Area Neighborhood Association. “There are some people who just do not read the news, they don’t know what’s going on. ... They’ve had three opportunities to become enlightened on trash services. There should be no excuse.”
At 11:59 Thursday night, South Cordova, Southwind-windyke and Rocky Point left the city of Memphis, becoming unincorporated parts of Shelby County.
December 2020 was the last month for city of Memphis trash removal. After that, residents of the newly de-annexed areas are responsible for contracting with a waste collection company, according to an August FAQ from the city of Memphis.
Silliman and Patti Possel, a South Cordova resident who advocated for deannexation, said they and other leaders decided to recommend that residents sign up with Home Town Disposal, a company based in Memphis, for trash removal.
“We did not want five different trash companies coming into our streets daily,” Possel said. “That beats up our streets and makes it look very untidy.”
Since then, leaders in the community have been at work spreading the word of the need to switch to private trash services.
Possel said misinformation is widespread, especially since there are many newcomers to the neighborhood. Some don’t know where the border of the deannexation begins. Others believed that the county would provide trash services.
Some services will transition from the city of Memphis to Shelby County. The Shelby County Roads, Bridges and Engineering Department will handle road repairs. The Shelby County Sheriff ’s Office will handle police services.
However, Shelby County Government does not offer solid waste collection, except in one program piloted this August in Northaven.
That program in Northhaven was the first time the county offered solid waste service, a program created after the community had requested it for years. There, they serve approximately 1,500 households and other structures.
Possel said that a Shelby County representative approached her to ask whether there was interest in the county possibly offering trash services to the area, but that the residents don’t want government services when they can have private ones.
Residents of the newly de-annexed areas will no longer be charged a city of Memphis solid waste fee as of Jan. 1. However, they still have to pay some city taxes due to debt and unfunded pension liabilities that the city took on while those areas were a part of the city. The areas will no longer have to pay city taxes in 1.6 years for Southwind/windyke, 2.2 years for South Cordova and 4.1 years for Rocky Point, according to City of Memphis documents.
In Possel’s neighborhood, the home owner’s association disseminated information about the need to change to private trash services and all but four households signed up with Home Town Disposal, Possel said.
Since late October, Home Town Disposal has signed up roughly 1,700-1,800 homes in the South Cordova, Rocky Point and Windyke neighborhoods, said Barry Thomas, owner of the company.
And “hundreds” of those calls have come in just the past few days, he said.
Thomas said he’s asking for patience as his company works to handle the influx of customers and to deliver trash bins.