Two sanitation firms are good to haul garbage in non-municipal Warren County for half the fiscal year, while two more are working to do so, officials said Monday.

Waste Management and Waste Pro of Mississippi were OK’d by the Board of Supervisors on the recommendation of county environmental officer Katie Strong. Trucks were properly marked and insured and customer lists updated, she said.

Earth Friends Environmental Services and Oscar Mayfield are “just now getting their signs installed” on packer trucks and should become permitted when the board meets again Nov. 19.

Outside Vicksburg, residents and businesses must contract for their own garbage pickup. A $1.25 surcharge added to the approximately 6,200 such customers funds the county’s environmental office, a function of an environmental clerk and the building permit field officer. The office tracks the number of paying customers to satisfy disposal laws enforced by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. Garbage may be taken to commercial receptacles, with permission from the owner. The board also may appoint a mediator to hear rate disputes and other issues between a contracted hauler and a customer, a move Strong recommended in October. The position has been dormant for a decade.

Supervisors have paid closer attention to detail on the twice-yearly permits for garbage haulers since midsummer. Until then, the board had hinted strongly at scrapping the system to go with a single hauler. The county asks haulers for a list of customers and to use properly marked packer trucks.

In July, the board stripped Billy Drake of a permit for incomplete customer lists and late surcharge payments. Drake has appealed the decision in circuit court.