The city of Selma is only one week away from its garbage disposal services being transitioned to a private company through a contract. As the company Advanced Disposal continues to pursue residents to register with their garbage service, they have run into some frustrations.

Lynn Gowan, government affairs and marketing for Advanced Disposal said the number of people who have signed up for the service are less than was expected.

“We had very few people actually sign up,” Gowan said. “We had less than 200 people sign up so we are just going to go ahead and send everyone who is registered with the city a bill for the services and taking those who have exemptions and disregarding them from the billing.”

He said the common topics their offices have received calls about include exemptions from billing and backdoor services.

“Those who have their household income as only social security, they are exempt from the billing,” Gowan said. “But the sign up period, which was done through the city, ended on Dec. 1.”

In addition to that confusion, there have been residents calling and wanting to apply for backdoor services because of disabilities.

“But you have to go through the city and city offices to get that exemption,” he said.

The series of public forums the Selma mayor’s office conducted are still going on throughout the month, but Gowan and Selma Mayor George Evans have seen lower attendance from the community than expected.

“It’s been slow for the garbage sign ups,” Evans said. “But it has gotten better compared to the earlier weeks [of the transition.] Even though it has been slow we still have one more week and we will work through that and still pursue everyone for registering.”

Gowan said he wants to again assure the community that Advanced Disposal will follow the current garbage routes come Feb. 1 when they start making the runs.

For any questions regarding the garbage services call the Advanced Disposal customer service department, (866) 252-0458.