The issue of county-wide trash pickup came up at last week's county commission meeting but the board has still not agreed to do it.
For years the commission has discussed requiring garbage pickup county-wide in an effort to stop littering as well as people dumping household trash in county recycling bins or in the woods or on the sides of roads.
The issue was raised this month by Commissioner Jessica Ward who said that some of her constituents who live on Highway 65 can't get trash pickup in their area and some of them are burning their trash.
Earlier this year the board asked that solid waste department meet with local garbage pickup providers to see whether a county-wide program would be feasible.
The providers said that in order for the contract to be successful, the contract would have to be an exclusive franchise agreement which means only one company could provide garbage pickup in the unincorporated areas of the county.
The other requirement is a county ordinance would require strong penalties and fines that would make it easier and cheaper for all residents to keep their accounts current as the other option would be more expensive.
County attorney Michael Shuler pointed out that there are a lot of issues that would have to be discussed before mandatory trash pickup could become a reality, including whether the cost of trash pickup would be added to the county tax bills, and how the county would deal with people who did not pay the cost.
Mandatory trash pickup is in effect in the City of Apalachicola, but the attorney pointed out that the city can cut off water and sewer to people who don't pay so they do have some control that the county does not have.
Shuler pointed out that no commissioner wants someone to lose their property because they don't pay their trash bill.
Commission chairman Ricky Jones said he would like to investigate whether the county could fund the trash pickup through a half-cent sales tax; county staff is now looking at that proposal.
Commissioner Noah Lockley actually made a motion to move to county-wide mandatory trash pickup but rescinded it while the county continues to investigate the best way to move forward.
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