County residents still question disposal fee

By GINA VASSELLI
Item Staff Writer
gvasselli@theitem.com

Although Sumter County passed its $34-a-year fee for solid waste almost five months ago, residents came out in droves to the County Council meeting Tuesday.

More than a dozen people gathered in the back rows of the County Council chambers, expressing their displeasure at the new fee.

The two people who spoke during public comment on behalf of the group were the owners of mobile home parks.

Willy Robertson, the owner of Robertson Mobile Home Park in Dalzell, said he already pays Waste Management to haul off his residents' trash.

"Where does this money go?" he asked council. "Does it go to Waste Management?"

In atypical fashion, council members spoke to the mobile home park owners during the public comment.

Councilman Artie Baker explained that the fee is not really new, but a shift of funding the cost to ship the county's garbage from the transfer station to the landfill near Elgin from millage to a fee.

"It's a lot more fair to put a fee on a tax bill instead of letting the millage go up every year," Baker said.

Despite the explanations, Robertson said he still feels like Waste Management is getting paid twice by the mobile home parks.

Council members also discussed the garbage fee in the Fiscal, Tax and Property Committee meeting.

Councilman Eugene Baten asked about the residents who live in the city and the county.

Baten said he felt a man who came before council a while ago never got an answer to his question about why he's being "double dipped."

"He is paying not only the city fee but a county fee of $34," Baten said.

But other council members explained to him that this was not a unique case, but something that all city residents are dealing with.

Council Chairwoman Vivian Fleming McGhaney said, "We're still working through (the problems)."

Council also deferred giving second reading to an permanent easement and right of way to Farmer's Telephone Cooperative so it can put a switch box at a county-owned property on Durant Lane.

"I'm not real sure about this yet," said Baker. "I'd like to look at it a little bit more."

Councilman Charles Edens also expressed some reservations at what more or less amounts to selling a small portion of the land to FTC.

"You never know what the future holds and this is permanent. For ever and ever," Edens said. "I don't think this is the only piece of property they could find."

Council voted unanimously to defer the second reading until its next meeting.



Contact Staff Writer Gina Vasselli at gvasselli@theitem.com or (803) 774-1214.

Council also:

  Gave first reading to the 2030 Comprehensive Plan, though Councilman Eugene Baten requested more information on how to bridge the economic and racial divides in the community.

  Gave second reading to rezone 1 acre on Cockerill Road from Heavy Industrial to General Residential so a home could be build on the property for a member of the family who owns the land.

  Approved a resolution in support of the South Carolina Jobs-Economic Development Authority giving an Economic Development Revenue Bonds worth $3.4 million to Goodwill Industries of Lower South Carolina Inc. The bonds have no impact on the county, but state law requires the county to give a resolution in favor of the bond issuance.

  Gave approval for the county attorney to draw up a contract for the sheriff's department's technology agreement.