Garbage law sees change

Earlier this summer, City of Hebron treasurer Carla Seaman approached council members about the paperwork mess created by its mandatory garbage pickup law.

The ruling dictates that anyone living inside the city limits must have their garbage picked up by any garbage collector possessing a valid permit issued by the city. It also states that the city will take care of billing in order to regulate the measure. The effort worked, everyone has garbage pick up, but the system has turned labor intensive, especially with three disposal companies servicing the area.

Seaman said also that since the city was in charge of billing, responsibility for unpaid accounts and customer complaints fell to Hebron instead of the garbage collectors.
Since then, city officials have met with area collectors to discuss the matter and Seaman presented ordinance amendment suggestions at the October meeting three weeks ago. Council members approved the new procedures and the ordinance went into effect immediately.

One customer change includes the ability to sign on with any hauler of one’s choice (like always), but switching carriers is now limited to two months a year; January and July.

As far as billing is concerned, any extra charges, i.e., large dumpster requests and extra items needing to be removed, or any discounted specials such as business and home combination packages, will be worked out between the hauler and customer.

The city will no longer add or subtract dollars from the regular monthly fee.
An additional customer change includes the initiation of a $5 administration fee each for disconnection and restart services.

And for haulers, the city will keep track of uncollected accounts for six-month periods and deduct that amount from the regular collections. The haulers will now be responsible for collecting unpaid accounts.

Also, because of noise complaints, haulers must wait until 5 a.m. before collecting trash.

An itemized account of the city’s solid waste disposal ordinance is kept on file at the city’s office.