BOC Talks Trash

News

The Gilmer County Board of Commissioners held a workshop Thursday, Feb 24, 2011 and mainly discussed a solution to the disposal of the County’s trash. The sticking points appear to be; how to determine the fee, what type of amendment to possibly make with the current contract held by Advanced Disposal, and how to collect the funds. Advanced Disposal, owned by AIG, was represented at the workshop by Mark Odekirk, District Manager-Atlanta. Mr. Odekirk offered suggestions throughout the workshop.

It appeared everyone was in agreement that a change must occur – the discussion stalls on how to make the change. The BOC clearly wants to make the best decision for Gilmer County citizens. Advanced Disposal’s perspective on the issues would naturally come from a financial gain basis since handling the disposal of the trash for Gilmer will create profit for its company. If additional services are contracted to Advanced Disposal, the greater its profit. This one point does not appear to escape the attention of J.C. Sanford.

Advanced Disposal gave an estimate of $100,000 in improvements that would have to be made before it could meet additional service needs for Gilmer and further stated it would expect a long term contract in order to recoup its cost. The County Attorney pointed out to the BOC that it could take the centers and do a trial basis thereby allowing the BOC the opportunity to see how its system could work if the County handled the sites. All Commissioners were in agreement that all of the centers need to be open and the recurring theme seems to be the County needs money now.

The BOC could decide to allow the County to handle the waste disposal themselves. Mr. Sanford points out that currently the County citizens pay approximately 3.5 cents per pound for current disposal services. Advanced Disposal could possibly cost 10 cents per pound if its contract should be amended to include additional services. The obvious question is why take the profit for the service away from the citizens of Gilmer County and give it to an outside company? Gilmer County could definitely benefit from the funds collected and this could give the necessary assistance to the areas in need and in turn benefit our own Citizens.

Frustration levels rose when the subject seemed to go in circles. The BOC finally agreed to call a special meeting with the County Attorney to discuss what legal options they can consider to move forward. Apparently a prior meeting between the County Attorney and Advanced Disposal reps was previously approved but did not occur. Advanced Disposal stated they did not realize the meeting was approved. The County Attorney explained that if the BOC should so decide to end their contract with Advanced Disposal, they would be required to submit a sixty day notice of termination and the contract would end at the end of its fiscal year, which is on a calendar year. So after several meetings a firm decision is yet to be made. Hopefully the special meeting will assist the BOC with their decision regarding trash disposal. Citizens need to remember the trash issue is only a small portion of the over all budget issues faced by Gilmer County.

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