Commissioner’s Report – JC Sanford Explains the New Trash Charges

With a deep regret on my part I have to announce we will put in place a $1.00 per bag charge for household garbage at all seven of the collection sites starting Monday April, 4. The $1.00 charge will apply to a 33 gallon size bag if the large lawn, leaf size bag is used it will be a $2.00 charge. We will continue to take recycle material at no charge at the Hwy 382, 52 East, and Tower road sites if it is properly separated and placed in the proper containers. We will as soon as possible put recycle bins at the other sites.

The operation hours will be 7:30am to 6pm at Tower Road, 52 East and Hwy 382 Monday through Saturday. The Tower Road site will be open Sunday from noon until 6pm. The other four sites will be open Monday-Wednesday and Saturday from 7:30am to 6pm. This is not something we wanted to do, however circumstances of the times gave us no choice. My belief is, if we work at this in a proper way the recycle program cam give a return large enough to help a great deal with our cost.

This is put in place on a trial basis and if it does not work we may in time privatize the garbage operation in our county as some counties in the area around us, have already.

The civil air patrol has put together at the Gilmer Airport a composite squadron of both senior volunteer and high school cadets. This can and will become a positive function at our airport, with their training to be primary personnel to respond to emergencies or disasters as search and rescue on missions directed by GEMA and will be support for the Gilmer County Fire and Sheriff departments. These cadets will learn all the skills for leadership positions in time to come. If you have a personal interest in this program contact Greg Altman@Ellijay.com. This could become a very important tool to our community in time of emergency.

As usual you can reach me at 706-635-4361 or jcsanford@gilmercounty-ga.gov.