Gadsden Council to vote on increasing garbage collection fee from $13 to $20 monthly
The Gadsden City Council on Tuesday will consider increasing the garbage collection fee for city residents by nearly 54%.
Currently, the fee is $13 a month, billed quarterly at $39. If the increase is approved, the rate will rise to $20 a month, billed quarterly at $60.
The council heard a first reading of the proposal at this week’s meeting.
Director of City Services Tena King said the increase — which would be the city’s first in two decades — is needed “to keep up with the cost of fuel, to be perfectly honest, and the wear and tear on the trucks, plus labor (costs have) increased as well.”
King added, “This is not a knee-jerk reaction. We are looking at what other communities around us are doing, and looking at other communities across the state that are our size.”
Etowah County recently increased its fee for garbage collection from $14.49 to $23.45 a month, increasing by $1 annually in 2024 and 2025.
Southside took over garbage collection for residents there this year, and the monthly fee rose from $15.50 to $27.
Rainbow City’s fee is $15 a month, but it will jump to $17 in 2024, $19 in 2025 and $20 in 2026.
Hokes Bluff just increased its fee to $25 a month, billed at $75 quarterly.
Attalla’s fee is $14.50 a month and Glencoe’s is $53 quarterly.
Council President Kent Back during this week’s precouncil meeting said, “We want to hold it as reasonable as possible. We don’t want to make money. We just want to break even.”
Back and King noted that the city continues to have a major problem with delinquent garbage fees. King said the total amount of accounts in arrears from 2019 to 2022 is about $750,000.
“We’ve got to plug that hole,” Back said. “We can’t in good conscience continue to provide those services and people aren’t paying their bill to the tune of $750,000.”
King praised the efforts of the city’s Finance Department in trying to track down those who are behind, but Beck cited a major obstacle: the transient nature of housing in Gadsden.
He said about 42% of the city’s residents live in rental properties; those customers account for more than 80% of the delinquent accounts; and they often can be difficult to find, with collection notices being returned as undeliverable to City Hall.
King said the city plans an amnesty program in April that will enable people to take care of those past-due accounts, and will make public service announcements to get the word out.
About $52,000 in delinquent fees was collected last year, she said, adding, “If we can collect some amount, that’s more than we have.”
Also, the council will at some point consider becoming involved in the new Municipal Intercept Services program, which was set up by the Alabama League of Municipalities. It allows municipalities to coordinate with the state Department of Revenue to withhold delinquent city fees, such as for garbage collection, from people’s state tax refunds.
King said the deadline to apply for exemptions from the garbage fee for residents whose sole income is Social Security and/or disability payments was Feb. 28. That exemption must be re-applied annually. She said letters were mailed out to those who claimed it previously, and added, “We made sure to go above and beyond to make sure people who weren’t aware of the program gained knowledge of it.”
Council member Larry Avery suggested adding radio announcements to next year’s informational campaign to facilitate that.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Gadsden Council to vote on garbage fee increase
