Commissioners discuss garbage service
WEDOWEE – Randolph County Commission approved putting its solid waste service on a four-day workweek and also discussed how to work with another garbage service during this week’s commission meetings.
Commissioner Lathonia Wright told the group he had met with the owner of R&W Solid Waste. Wright said if the commission had assigned R&W a territory awhile back, they would have worked with it and would not now be soliciting customers from other areas.
“He doesn’t want a territory now. It wants it to stay like it is with both picking up wherever,” said Wright. “He doesn’t want us to bid it either.”
Commissioner Ed Creed said he feels that as long as the county is breaking even, they should leave it alone. He said, “Folks will always get mad with one and switch to the other. That’s just people.”
“If y’all decide to bid the garbage and he doesn’t get the bid, he’s out of business, except for the town of Wedowee,” said county engineer Burrel Jones.
Commissioner Larry Raughton said, “Are we going to do what he wants to do or what we want to do? Some people assume we’re going out of business, and we’re not.”
“He must know something we don’t know for him to be expanding like that,” said Creed.
Spears noted, “Mostly he’s picking up people who haven’t had garbage service and that’s good.”
Wright said, “The questions is do we want to stay in the garbage business. If so, how is he going to impact us?”
Raughton told the group, “If we bid it out, we could sell them our equipment and possibly hire our employees, too.”
Creed said, “Let’s get all the figures of what we’re making or losing and start from there,” and the group agreed.
Commission Chairman June Waldrep said the solid waste employees want a four-day work week and that would save money.
“If y’all think it would work, I have no problem with it, but I don’t want to go to four tens (ten-hour days) and then have to switch back,” said Spears.
Jones said some counties, including Chambers, stay on four tens year round.
The garbage service will go back to four ten-hour days on June 5. This will affect a few customers each day of the week. Notices will be sent out. Households should have their trash out by 7 a.m.
Other business
In other business, the commission:
€ Approved assisting in the funeral expenses with $300 each for Alan Jerome Barsh, Quadrianna Ebony Trammell and Norma Fern Priest. The commissioners discussed how they are getting more and more requests to help with funeral expenses and wondered how it would be possible to get more proof of the families’ needs.
€ Approved a letter of support for the Cheaha Mental Health Mental Retardation Board’s application for Section 5310 funding for a new van.
€ Noted that the back porch of the courthouse is the designated smoking area.
€ Approved employee evaluations.
