The City of Clarksdale is over a barrel: A garbage barrel and will see trash and garbage fees go up this month.
The Clarksdale Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted on new garbage rates in a special called meeting last week that was not part of its regular meeting agenda.
The city voted Friday to modify Clarksdale’s solid waste, trash collection and disposal rates after discussing them with Republic Services for more than two months. The announcement of the special meeting was posted at 4:55 p.m. Thursday and the meeting and vote were held at 9 a.m. Friday at City Hall.
Mayor Chuck Espy had asked the board to allow him to negotiate with Republic this spring, touting his ability to negotiate contracts. Espy has repeatedly pointed to his ability to obtain new insurance contracts with out-of-town firms that allegedly saved the city thousands of dollars.
Clarksdale will now see it garbage rates for single- or two-family residences go to $35.20 per month per family.
In March of 2022 the city was charging residents $26.50. That fee covers street sweeping, garbage collection, debris collection, litter control and recycling.
Republic negotiated a deal with Coahoma County for garbage pickup this summer that also saw rates go up and the county move to pick up debris themselves in an effort to keep rates down.’
The county collects its “fees” through property taxes and property owners who rent houses collect that fee through rent. The county levies a five mill property tax for garbage collection and does not charge a fee to homes. That levy raises approximately $800,000.
The city bills garbage pickup through Clarksdale Public Utilities as part of their electric, water and sewer bill each month.
The new ordinance and fees will also require residents to place their garbage can “at ground levels and not more than five feet from the side of the street.”
But apparently not everyone in Clarksdale pays for garbage pickup.
Some residents put their trash in black-garbage bags, put them on the curb with other debris and the city’s debris truck grabs those garbage bags with limbs and debris, drops it in their truck bed, and hauls it to the rubbish landfill. Placing household garbage in a rubbish landfill is a direct violation of MDEQ rules. The city has been cited repeatedly by MDEQ for violations at its rubbish landfill.
Two years ago the city determined there were more than 750 big blue plastic garbage cans around town that people were not paying for.
If a blue garbage can is in front of your house on garbage day Republic trucks simply dump it and dispose of the trash. Residents who had a garbage account were seeing their garbage cans stolen.
The new fees went into effect Aug. 1.
In other business
• The city voted to reword the way it will pay at-risk youth for two-weeks of summer employment with Public Works.
The job program was brought to the board by City Human Resource Director Tara Slack. Had the city hired these youth as regular employees, they would have had to take out taxes from their paycheck. As an independent contractors they will be paid a set amount for a job.
Espy said he was seeking to hire disadvantaged youth or youth who owed juvenile court fines earlier this summer for summer jobs picking up trash and mowing grass, but no one applied. With just under two weeks to go before school starts the city voted to hire 23 youth after counselors told their charges to take these jobs.
The city will pay these youth minimum wage and cut checks rather than make electronic deposits to banks as with regular employees.
• The city also offered employment to Timothy Cheeks and Jarvis Liner as laborers in the Public Works department.
• The city’s next regular meeting will be its noon vetting meeting set for Aug. 8, at City Hall. All city board meetings are open to the public and the people are urged to attend.
