County ax leaves 130 without garbage service

Published 11:45 am Tuesday, July 17, 2012

About 130 residents outside Vicksburg will have to find another garbage hauler after one of two family-run services in the county had its permit pulled Monday for the third time in nearly four years.

Meanwhile, an additional 400 or so may find themselves in the same situation in three weeks.

The permit held by Billy Drake was revoked on a 4-1 vote of the Warren County Board of Supervisors Monday.

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In April, the board gave Drake 90 days to update his list of customers and balance his business account of surcharges paid to the county geared to keep it compliant with state-set garbage disposal laws.

District 5 Supervisor Richard George moved in favor of revocation, based on the missed deadline. District 2 Supervisor William Banks, who had asked for an explanation from Drake, voted against the measure.

A list of 377 accounts eyed when the 90 days began has been winnowed to an “active” list of about 130, county environmental clerk Katie Stanford told the board. Another 40 addresses have been identified, but without names, she said.

The service’s permit, formerly held off and on for about 45 years by Drake’s late father, Leon, was revoked for a time in September 2008 and July 2009 for tardy payments, improperly equipped trucks and other issues. Most of Drake’s business was in the southeastern part of the county.

Drake’s attorney, Marshall Sanders, pleaded for more time, saying the business had hit a wall in finding names for the apparently missing clients.

“We have gone out and done everything we could to get the names of the people we serve,” Sanders said. “We have gone to the addresses, we have done Google and done everything we know to get it.”

Fayette-based Earth Friends Environmental Services was given an Aug. 6 deadline to find seven customers of its 387-customer client list. CEO Rogers King said he was confident a full list could be produced.

“We’ve been working with (Stanford). Those acknowledgements are either in the mail or some of our drivers are picking them up. We’ll get it done,” King said.

“Come the first Monday in August, if you’re not ready, you won’t have to worry about getting ready,” George told King.

The new numbers put the number of people in non-municipal Warren County, where garbage pickup service is initiated by the resident or business, with regular pickup or some other form of legal disposal at about 6,200. Waste Management, the city’s contract service, has the largest customer base, with about 4,800 clients.

A $1.25 surcharge is added to bills to fund the county’s environmental office, which in turn tracks the number of paying customers to keep the county compliant with rubbish disposal mandates from the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Drake’s exit leaves the county with four permitted garbage pickup services — Waste Management, Earth Friends Environmental Services, Waste Pro of Mississippi and Oscar Mayfield.