The recent flap concerning the city’s efforts to collect past due garbage fees has some residents stinking mad.

They are mad because they are being asked to pay for past due garbage fees. Some folks think they don’t owe the bill. Maybe they don’t. The city says if such can be proven then the charges will be deleted and that seems fair.

We think the city did the right thing by trying to collect on these fees. The issue of delinquent garbage collection fees has haunted the city for some time. The unpaid bills have been kept in the closet in the past as our leaders chose to look the other way. The bills actually stem back from when the Selma Water and Sewer Board collected garbage fees.

The city is right in wanting to get paid. If the city did not pursue garbage collection aggressively, then it would run the risk of more and more people believing that they didn’t have to pay their bills and possibly put the system in jeopardy.

We all say we want the city of Selma to succeed. If we really want that, we need to make sure we are current on billings from the city. The city is not unlike most people’s households, it needs a constant stream of revenue to function.

No one likes to get correspondence from a collection agency. It can be unnerving and frightening. But residents receiving the letter need to realize that this is a mess that needs to be cleaned up.

As the city gets to the bottom of this and tries to fix it, some residents may be angered and bothered. But such is often necessary to get things right and in order.