As the city garbage system transitions into a private company, Advanced Disposal, there are still questions as to how the collection of bills that are not paid to Advanced Disposal will be enforced.

According to a spokesman from Advanced Disposal, Lynn Gowan, once the resident has not paid their bill after the 15th of each month, their garbage cart will be picked up.

“If they have not paid, we will go pick up their cart and once we have done that we will turn that address over to the city code enforcement and the city will take over after that,” Gowan said.

He also addressed that Advanced Disposal would first exhaust all of their efforts in trying to collect a payment.

“They will be called and they will be sent letters,” Gowan said. “They get a notice in the mail and then we call them.”

There is a $25 reinstatement fee for residents to get their garbage cart back after it has been collected from the street.

In a community forum with Mayor George Evans and Advanced Disposal, one resident asked what would happen if they did not pay their fee due to poor service.

“You would still go to court for not paying the fee,” city attorney Jimmy Nunn said in the meeting. “But that would be your defense in court – that you were not happy with the service.”

It is still unclear, however, it attempts to contact the city code enforcement office, the tax and license department and the mayor’s office whether or not the citations for failure to pay the garbage fee will be written to the property owner or the resident in the home.