Liberty County BOC approves solid waste rate hike

Liberty County residents and businesses are paying more for solid waste.

The Liberty County Board of Commissioners voted at its Feb. 4 meeting to approve a consulting firm’s recommendations on suggested rate hikes over the next five years. 

Residential customers will see the price increase in 2026 on their 2025 property tax bill. Commercial customers are paying more immediately for roll-on/roll-off, dumpster, and tipping fees.

The county’s smallest municipalities will see the largest price increases. Walthourville and Allenhurst will go from $15.80 to $77.94 per year by 2029. Midway also will pay $77.94 by 2029, up from $53.04. Hinesville will go from $23.11 to $33.62. Gum Branch was not listed.

The county loses money when solid waste companies don’t use the county transfer station in Fleming. 

For example, Atlantic Waste, which recently started hauling solid waste for both Walthourville and Allenhurst, does not use the county transfer station. That means Liberty County lost roughly $10,000 to $11,000 per month in tipping fees that Walthourville had been paying.

In August 2024, Walthourville’s city council voted 4-1 to get out of the sanitation business and to sell off its garbage truck to help balance the city’s budget. Councilmembers Mitchell Boston and Robert Dodd led the push to privatize solid waste services. The council voted to sell the city’s garbage truck to defray expenses. As of publication, the truck was still parked at the public works yard.

John Culbertson, a consultant with MidAtlantic Solid Waste Consultants, told the BOC the county can charge the market rate – significantly more than what the county has been charging in recent years – because the county provides both public and commercial tipping services.

“We believe it’s reasonable, and are recommending a scaled annual escalation that is consistent with the consumer price index, or inflation, by various names, essentially the increase in the cost of new business,” Culbertson said.

This would include a higher 2025 rate plus a 4% rate increase “because part of the cost of that service is tied to a contract that actually escalates higher than 4% — 5 and a half percent,” he explained. “But the other component of that is it’s anchored to county staff to operate the transfer facility.“

The plan also recommends “a fairly substantial increase” for large commercial dumpster pull fees and business curbside bins, Culbertson said. 

Residential rates are much more complicated, he said, because different municipalities have different ways of managing solid waste. 

After going back over the numbers, Culbertson said he was able to knock about 10% off of the previously proposed rate increase for curbside service. 

Rates would go up 3% each year for the next 5 years to ensure the county can afford to keep providing solid waste services in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis and inflation. He also said that the county has been “very customer friendly,” perhaps a little too friendly in that they gave out too many discounts “for folks that opted to go with higher third-party service.”

Companies that don’t use the county transfer station would be charged an “overhead sustainability fee,” Brown said, because the county would be responsible for providing sanitation should a company fail to do so.

“It’s our responsibility to provide sanitation countywide and provide the services and assets related thereto,” Brown explained, adding, “We lose your revenue stream, but we’ve got to maintain certain fixed assets and certain facilities for your care in case something happens.”

According to County Manager Joey Brown, the county must be able to provide landfill services in case something goes wrong. Under the Georgia Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Act, counties must be able to handle at least 10 years’ worth of solid waste.

District 2 Commissioner Justin Frasier pointed out the municipalities would pay the steepest increases, and that “fire and trash pickup is a hot topic [in Walthourville and Allenhurst].. So you know, they’re already a little, I guess, excited in a negative way down there about trash pickup. So are we going to send a representative down there or send a letter, just to let them know?”

Brown said the sanitation fee would be placed on 2025 property tax bills for the tax commissioner to collect in 2026.

Citing Midway as an example, Brown said, “$77.94 is actually $6.50 a month that those folks would be paying.”

Frasier replied, “So yeah, I get it. I’m just saying, have y’all been watching the meetings? Because they’re, they’re getting upset down there about $3… I guess it goes back to us, just, you know, informing the citizens that this is what is going down the pipeline.”

Type of Story: News

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.