[6/6/03]City officials are considering a plan to reduce illegal dump sites in Vicksburg by relaxing rules now in place for seven months.

“It didn’t work,” Mayor Laurence Leyens said Thursday of regulations that went into effect in November and specifically those that curtailed the amount of waste that would be collected.

“That’s why I want one party that’s responsible for all garbage,” he said.

City officials said they plan to seek proposals from garbage companies to pick up piles of yard debris, no matter how the pile is placed at streetside. Today, rules require residents to cut and bundle tree limbs and bag all other waste.

City officials estimate removing limits will cost taxpayers an additional $100,000 to $200,000 annually, but said they don’t want to raise monthly bills.

“Why would I want to charge the public more when we screwed up?” said South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman. “I’m not going to ask people to pay any more.”

Bills for residential garbage collection twice a week increased by $1.55 to $12.60 per month in November with the new contract. Many complained about the additional costs, but Leyens said the new rate reflected actual costs of collection and disposal and discontinued subsidies from the city’s general fund.

In previous years, the city supplemented the cost of garbage collection with about $500,000 from property taxes. The city also funded trucks and crews to collect yard waste once a week which cost taxpayers another $600,000. Leyens said those savings have been used to fund the cost of other community improvements and allowed the city to avoid a tax increase last fall.

Leyens said he would prefer to keep the new system in place, but people are not following the rules.

“Trash exists, and if you don’t pick it up it will end up in a gully,” Leyens said.

Since the new rules went into effect, city crews have been responding to about 40 calls per day for large piles of yard waste. The crews have had to pick up some of those piles and have paid about $9,000 for disposal since January.

Figures show the combined amount of waste picked up by the city during the first three months of this year was less than the number of cubic yards collected in any month during the previous two years.

The largest amount collected by the city was 1,640 cubic yards in April after heavy storms caused considerable damage and flooding. That amount was still less than the amount in any other month in 2002 or 2001 before the new rules began.

To help with large cleanups, the city has also contracted with Waste Management to place commercial garbage containers at four locations six times this summer for public use; however, city officials say the containers have gotten little use.

They will be placed out again Saturday at Ford, Hutson, Ridgeway, Randolph, Oak, and Hanley streets, Indiana Avenue fire station and U.S. 61 South at the airport.

Waste Management has the city contract to collect residential household waste and yard waste that is cut and bundled or bagged. Waste Management will not pick up yard waste that is in large piles and, under the rules, homeowners can be fined up to $1,000 for not disposing of waste properly.