Macon-Bibb officials hold off on garbage fee changes

The Macon-Bibb County Commission voted Tuesday to delay an ordinance that would move garbage and recycling fees to annual billing.

The Macon-Bibb County Commission tabled the ordinance during the pre-commission meeting. The ordinance would clear the way for the garbage and recycling fees to be listed with property tax bills as an effort to improve the collection rate.

The new billing would mean residential parcels with a structure on them are assessed garbage fees.

The proposal comes as Macon-Bibb County seeks to better handle millions of dollars of delinquent garbage bills. The goal of the new billing method is to have the garbage fee collection rate mirror property tax collections.

Commissioners will discuss the ordinance again on Feb. 14 during committee meetings.

Under the proposal, the first annual bill would cover 15 months of service from October 2017 through 2018. Tax Commissioner Wade McCord has said the first bill would likely be separate from the property tax bill. The fees would become a line item on the property tax bill in 2019 if the ordinance is approved.

Garbage containers

Macon-Bibb County residents who have requested a new garbage container received some positive news Tuesday.

The commission approved spending $140,000 to buy 2,874 trash cans. The 96-gallon containers have been in high demand — now with 1,900 backlogged requests — since rolling out last year.

The county still has about 1,500 recycling bins available.

Anyone interested in getting new garbage or recycling containers is asked to call 478-751-7400 or 478-803-0499 or use See, Click, Fix at www.maconbibb.us/seeclickfix.

Aldean Way

The County Commission sent a resolution to committee that proposes designating a section of a street after country music star Jason Aldean.

Commissioners were expected to approve the resolution Tuesday. However, since a benefit concert for Children’s Hospital, Navicent Health, was pushed back from the spring until August, there was no need to rush it through, officials said.

This story was originally published February 7, 2017 at 6:47 PM with the headline "Macon-Bibb officials hold off on garbage fee changes."