Big changes including a rate hike and optional recycling are headed to Augusta garbage customers next year.
Going to an Augusta Commission committee Tuesday for a vote are contracts with Georgia Waste System LLC, a division of Waste Management, and Coastal Waste Recycling Inc. to pick up garbage, yard waste and bulky waste for a decade.
The Engineering Services committee is unlikely to hear the item, however, as two of its four members, Brandon Garrett and Alvin Mason, have announced they are on long-term leave, preventing the committee from having a quorum.
The item likely to pass to the full commission without a committee vote is similar to what residents get now: Once-weekly, “mandatory” garbage collection in a single container placed at the curb, plus weekly pickup of yard waste and bulky items such as kitchen appliances.
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The fee, which staff have complained hasn’t increased enough over the last decade, will be $440, added to a homeowner’s property tax bill, according to documents going for approval. That’s a 37% increase over the current rate of $320.50, with no increase in service. The rate also includes an annual 3% increase.
According to the documents, Georgia Waste System will serve the largely urban Zone 1, while Coastal Waste will handle zones 2 and 3. The documents make no mention of the type of fuel garbage trucks will use, such as those powered by compressed natural gas required under the expiring contract.
The documents dismiss recycling, which was included in the current contracts. Most customers have two containers, one with a blue lid, to recycle paper, plastic and metal.
“Resident participation in recycling program was minimum and not cost-effective,” so will be discontinued in the new contracts. The complaint has been that many residents, unaware or unwilling to recycle, simply use their recycling bin as a second garbage can.
Under the new contact as a “condition,” recycling will be provided by the contractors “under separate account set up by property owner and the contractor,” the documents state.
In other action
Commissioners have a long day of items after last week’s regular meeting had to be canceled due to the lack of a quorum. That meeting has been rescheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday.
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Items going before regular committees starting at 1 p.m. include:
- A revised purchasing card and credit card discussion, which could lead to placing a usage limit on Mayor Garnett Johnson’s card, if he obtains one, or possibly curtailing his use of a personal card for city business
- Commissioner Sean Frantom, who leaves office this year, has three items including the demand for an audit of Augusta Parks and Recreation, which commissioners derailed after bids came in
- Frantom also is calling to add a full-time EMA director to city staff, replacing the part-time role held by Augusta’s fire chief for many years. Commissioner Tony Lewis and Johnson have said they support this addition
- Frantom has asked the Administrative Services committee for a discussion of “the status of the clerk’s office,” meaning the office led by Clerk of Commission Lena Bonner. Deputy Clerk Nancy Morawski recently announced her retirement.
