Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Garbage Rate Hike Approved By Council

Major problems exist with the Gurdon Solid Waste Department.

The department is having to spend more money than it is currently taking in because of the amount of garbage being hauled away.

Because of this, the Gurdon City Council, in a special called meeting Monday night, agreed to raise the garbage rates on all residential and commercial customers.

Gurdon Mayor Rick Smith gave members of the council an analysis of the department, showing 633 residential accounts paying $6.35 per month. The 202 senior citizen customers pay $4.90 per month. This means the department receives $5,009.35 each month.

The commercial accounts were a much different animal, according to Smith. No one on the council had any idea how the figures for commercial customers was arrived at originally. However, the 102 commercial customers were paying a total of $1,629.65 per month.

Combined with the residential customers, this meant the solid waste department was generating $6,639 per month.

But, the Gurdon Water and Sewer Commission has been charging 6 percent of this for handling the billing of customers. The city has been paying the Water Department about $4,000 annually for billing.

Under the rate hike approved by the council, residential customers will soon be paying $6.85 per month, or 50 cents more than they are now. Senior citizens will see their bills increased to $5.48.

These increases are expected to generate $5,443.01 monthly.

Commercial customers will be divided into classes based on the amount of garbage they generate.

Those in class I will be paying $9 per month. Class II customers will pay $14 monthly, while class III will pay $21. Class IV accounts will be paying $30 each month, while class V customers will pay $49 a month. Customers in class VI will have a monthly bill of $62, with class VII customers being charged $85. Class VIII will have charges of $125 per month with the final class, IX, seeing rates of $175.

Currently, there are no customers in classes VII or IX, of the 102 commercial accounts.

Under these proposals, the commercial increases would generate $1,852 per month while the residential rates would bring in $7,295 a month.

Smith said residents in the city have been generating about 850 tons of garbage annually at a cost of $93.50 per ton.

This has resulted in the solid waste department running in a deficit situation and being unable to pay the Water Department its billing fees for the past two months.

Factoring in a 3 percent loss at 900 tons per year being hauled away, Smith said the department needs to generate at least $86,752.58 annually. Under the rate hike, a total of $87,540.12 will be brought in each year.

Smith met with the Water and Sewer Commission in December, explaining the city's position and asking the commissioners to reduce the billing fee to 3 percent, or about $400 a month.

The commission agreed to charge the city a flat $375 per month to handle billing and waive the two months the city currently owes for billing.

It was pointed out some people are taking their trash to the homes of senior citizens to be hauled off, so they will not have to pay the higher residential rates. Residential customers are allowed to have five large garbage bags each week hauled off.

Gurdon City Recorder/Treasurer Tambra Smith contacted other cities in the region to see how they handle solid waste.

She learned Arkadelphia, a city that also owns its water department, does not pay its water department a billing fee. Neither does the City of Hope. Prescott has a one-cent sales tax for solid waste and offers its residents free trash pickup.

Council person Micki Jones said Gurdon doesn't need to be paying its Water Department a billing fee either.

Smith said the city doesn't need to get the reputation of not paying its bills and suggested honoring the agreement with the Water Department at this time. However, he pointed out, the city council is the governing body of the City of Gurdon and has the ability to eliminate the billing fee altogether.

Currently an ordinance exists stating the city will pay the Water Department 6 percent for handling the billing. Smith said this ordinance can be amended by the council thereby making the Water Department handle the billing at no cost to the city.

The council agreed to honor the agreement of paying the Water Department a flat rate of $375 per month until a proposed ordinance can be prepared stating the city will not be charged for the billing of solid waste.

The rate increases will be seen on the March billing cycle.

Smith said once the solid waste department gets back on its feet financially, the city may look at providing garbage bags to its customers as other cities do.

These bags, he said, are heavier than normal and will be available for sale once the standard amount has been distributed to the customers. He said it would cost about $4,000 a year for the bags.

However, a box of 50 of these bags could be sold for $5 per box, thereby generating revenue for the department.

In other business the council filled two vacancies the city had.

Tony Pruitt was tabbed to fill a slot with the Gurdon Fire Department, having been approved by the city's personnel committee. Pruitt, Smith pointed out, has already been through the Arkansas State Fire Training Academy and has emergency medical technician training.

The council agreed and approved Pruitt for the GFD vacancy.

The other slot open was on the Housing Authority after Shirley Malcom tendered her resignation because of moving out of Gurdon.

Doug Quillin was recommended by the authority board to replace Malcom and approved by the council.

The city also now has a city attorney. The firm of Wright, Chaney, Berry and Daniel changed its legal direction and no longer handles criminal prosecution or defense. This meant Gurdon had to find another city attorney.

Taylor King agreed to handle the city's legal business based on a retainer fee of $500 per month, with all additional duties to be billed at $75 per hour.

King is currently the attorney for the Clark County Quorum Court, the City of Sparkman and is the assistant city attorney for Arkadelphia, along with being the Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for the 9th Judicial District.

King will begin his duties as the attorney for Gurdon Feb. 1, 1998.

The council's final order of business was to change its meeting date for February.

The council normally meets the second Monday of each month. However, this will fall on Feb. 9, which is the date the Gurdon Chamber of Commerce has set for its annual banquet.

Smith said with Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee slated to be the featured speaker the council needed to change its meeting time. The council was i