Walthourville pays garbage bill, will continue service

Update, 5:44 p.m., Aug. 22: Walthourville Mayor Sarah B. Hayes told The Current Friday that garbage pickup will happen as usual on Monday after the city paid Atlantic Waste $38,000. The news came just before the mayor and council convened for a special called meeting that drew about 40 citizens, 13 of whom spoke to the council as many waited outside.

From Aug. 21: Walthourville residents will not have their garbage picked up for the foreseeable future, due to what Atlantic Waste says is the city’s failure to pay for service since May. The council will hold a special called meeting at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 22; the agenda is posted on the city’s website.

A letter from Atlantic Waste Services President Ben Wall to Mayor Sarah B. Hayes and the City Council, dated Aug. 21, said the city owes the company $116,086.80 for services rendered.

Wall wrote that, “due to the ongoing excessive past due amounts for solid waste services, and the continuing difficulty in receiving payments from the City, we are forced to suspend services effective this Monday, August 24.”

According to Wall, Atlantic Waste sent the city a July 21 e-mail demanding payment by July 25 for bills the city has accrued since May.

“Then we asked for the May and June invoices to be paid by August 15th. As of today, we have heard nothing further from the City regarding these two payments,” he wrote. “Currently the City still owes for May, June and July totaling $116,086.80, and we are approaching the August billing. We simply cannot continue to provide services under these circumstances.”

Wall also said that his company had gone “above and beyond the scope of services.” He said the company did not charge the city for picking up 60 tons of storm debris back in January when service to the city began.

 “We have performed our services week after week, month after month with minimal if any service issues. In all my years in this business I have never placed a City on suspension of services for this reason. We regret this decision and understand the impact it will have on the good citizens of Walthourville,” Wall said.

Wall told the city to let him know when it would pay “so we can resume services.”

On Thursday afternoon, Hayes e-mailed the council: “All, this letter was delivered today. I can call a Special Called Meeting but not sure how many of you will show up. You know our funds situation, the CPA has stated it, not enough revenue to pay everything. Checking to see if anything can be done, as you know we do not have a backup plan since our sanitation vehicles were sold. I can call a Special Called Meeting but not sure how many of you will show up. City Hall will put out a blast to the public and let citizens know.”

Councilman Patrick Underwood questioned why Atlantic Waste had not been paid: “The citizens are paying for this service! There’s no reason we should be dealing with trash service being cut off. Where is the money going?”

Hayes told The Current, “For years the city has allowed citizens [a] grace period to pay bills, senior citizens were granted an additional 5 days to pay their water bills.  Many facing hardship in paying are senior citizens and single parent households, those with one income. Citizens having hardships were allowed to make payment arrangements. [The] majority of council voted to change that, to not allow them payment arrangements and cut them off if they owed more than $35.” The council voted to ban payment arrangements.

Hayes added that she had told the council that citizens on fixed incomes might not get their checks in sync with when utility bills are due. “This causes a problem with them being able to meet the deadline for cutoff, they get disconnected and charged a reconnect fee, putting them further behind,” she wrote in an e-mail. 

Councilmen Mitchell Boston had led the charge for privatizing sanitation and for selling the city’s garbage truck in order to balance the budget. He told The Current, “As a proponent of privatizing sanitation services, my stance has always been about improving efficiency and financial accountability. The Atlantic Waste issue is a symptom, not the root cause.”

Boston alleged that “our internal billing, collections, and payroll practices are the real problem” and that the the city should have brought in $56,000 by now.

He also defended the garbage truck sale because, he wrote, “Maintaining our own fleet without a reliable billing and timekeeping system had already proven costly and ineffective,” adding that, whether a service is privatized or not, it requires “disciplined financial management behind the scenes.”

The Current has e-mailed all councilmembers, seeking comment. At publication, no mention of the sanitation service suspension appeared on the city’s web site homepage.

Asked why the monies collected from customers was not sufficient to pay Atlantic Waste’s invoices, Hayes responded that “both a County Commissioner and the CPA advised council not to privatize sanitation. Our CPA stated we would pay more. That is where we are now. This will be discussed at the Special Called Meeting tomorrow.” Hayes clarified that “not enough money is being collected to cover the cost the sanitation company charges.”

At the council’s budget workshop on Tuesday, Hayes also informed the council that the city had not paid its share for public transportation since 2022, amounting to at least $42,813.05.

In 2016, the city signed a 50-year contract to share public transit costs with Hinesville, Flemington, “and other areas,” she said. She said the contract allows any party to cancel service with 90 days notice, she said. More than 800 Walthourville riders have used the service in the past 3 months. 

Hayes has asked Hinesville Mayor Karl Riles and City Manager Kenneth Howard to find out where and by whom “the ball was dropped” on invoices.

The next regular City Council meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 26 at the Walthourville Police Department (the old railroad depot building), 192 Talmadge Road.