Selma mayor pushes plan to eliminate garbage fees

From the West Alabama Newsroom–

Selma Mayor James Perkins, Jr. has come up with a plan — that he says will solve the city’s on-going garbage pick-up problems.

The Perkins garbage plan won’t be free but it’ll do away with garbage fees in the city.

“And the way to do that is by putting the cost of garbage management into a property tax,” said Perkins.

“Increase the property tax sufficient enough so that no one has a garbage bill. And we can actually do that if we do it at the right time. And we did it at the right rate.”

Garbage pick-up has been an on-going problem in Selma.

The service was once done by the city — until the quality of the service began to suffer — because of frequent equipment failure.

City leaders eventually decided to bring in an outside company — when faced with the cost of fixing and maintaining old equipment — or buying something new.

But none of that has solved the city’s garbage pick up problem.

And it’ll soon cost residents even more for garbage pick up.

“Martin Environmental made clear that if there is a new contract their rate will increase,” said Perkins.

“Any new contract should lead the city into a transitioning out of outsourcing. And we really need to get out of that because it was never, it never had a chance to work here.”

Perkins has been sharing his plan with residents at a series of community meetings held around the city.

The final meeting will be downtown at the Selma Convention Center.

An official date for the meeting hasn’t been set yet.