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🔄 Waste Management recommended giving North Walton residents a three-month window to request a second trash bin.
📞 Commissioners noted receiving many calls from residents concerned about recent trash collection changes.
📝 Waste Management will return with cost estimates and amended contracts for further review by the Board of County Commissioners.
Walton County residents are in transition when it comes to trash collection for its residents. And when we think of garbage collection, residents are somewhat resistant to change. Commissioner Danny Glidewell (District 2) shared in the discussion that his office is receiving many calls concerning the updated changes by the contracted vendor, Waste Management.
Billy McKee, Walton County Environmental Services Director, provided an update to the Commissioners regarding the key issue of trash collection in North Walton County. McKee addressed the main differences between North Walton and South Walton garbage collection and reviewed potential solutions for equitable service to all residents. In South Walton, residents receive garbage collection twice weekly, while WM only collects garbage in the northern part of Walton County once per week. He added that at a recent Board of County Commissioners (BCC) meeting, “two and a half options” were discussed to address equity in service levels. The first option was to expand garbage collection to twice weekly in North Walton County. The second option proposed was to provide a second garbage bin to all residents in North Walton. And a third option was to offer residents in North Walton a three month window to request a second trash bin to be delivered for their use.
Commissioner Glidewell asked, “If we passed Option 3 [providing a second trash bin for those who request one] what would the rollout time be?”
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Doug Rainer of Waste Management offered the following option [Option 3] as the best plan for meeting the residents’ needs and service. He stated, “We [Waste Management] would recommend Option 3 if that is what you [BCC] would like to do. [We could] condense this [implementing Option 3] to about a three-month time frame. That would allow us [Waste Management] to roll [the new prgram] out efficiently. It would be an à la carte menu where someone would ask us to coordinate that [the request for an additional trash bin] through staff so we would have a record of who has a second cart in the North end [of Walton County]. We could roll that out in a three month time frame.”
Interim County Attorney, Clay Atkinson, said that Waste Management would return to the BCC to provide anticipated additional costs and amended contract documents for the BCC to review.
As with most things in life, change can be difficult. Commissioner Tony Anderson (District 5) elaborated on what he has heard from family and his constituents and responded to Mr. Rainer. He said, “People are afraid of change. I implore people to give it a chance. There’s [sic] probably going to be some things we will get back into negotiation with you [Waste Management] on. It [fear] happens when you have this much change. So, you [Waste Management] have always done a good job…But there are things that are freaking the public out to be honest…I expected it to be this way. Because this is a major change from what the people are used to. It will be a great change, but there will be some tweaks we will have to make.”
