County tosses out idea to regulate trash pickup
An idea to have government oversee trash pickup service on a contract basis in Columbia County has been dumped.
Speaking to the county's Public Works Committee at its most recent meeting Thursday, County Engineer Jim Leiper told county commissioners such a plan had been examined and was determined to provide insufficient cost savings to warrant a change.
"Based on feedback from people with experience doing this program, the cost savings wouldn't have been that substantial,'' he said.
The idea had been proposed after some residents had brought forward concerns to commissioners, saying private trash pickup in the county was causing too many trash trucks to visit a neighborhood in the same day.
Traffic hauling companies, however, told county officials that if there were a move away from privatization, residents would no longer be able to choose their hauler, and smaller hauling companies would suffer as a result.
Commissioner Steve Brown said it was an idea that needed to be looked into, nonetheless.
"We're just trying to do a little homework before we make a decision,'' he said.
In the end, Leiper said, allowing residents to choose their own garbage hauler was the "preference of a majority of the people.''
The issue will now go before the county commission at its next meeting, on Dec. 7. Commissioners are expected to vote to keep trash pickup as it is.
In other action at Thursday's meeting, committee members discussed having neighborhoods decide whether they want speed humps on their roads.
The proposal was to have neighborhoods pay for the humps if they want them, much like neighborhoods currently pay for street lights.
"I think that's the best way,'' Brown said.
If the idea is agreed on by commissioners, it also could require neighborhoods to pay based on the speed of vehicles traveling through the neighborhood.
Those with less of a need to control speeders with speed humps could pay more than those neighborhoods that experience a greater problem with speeders.