With any great change, the devil is in the details. Sweeping changes succeed or fail on the littlest of things, often times on the item no one thought of.

Such a reminder is important as the city of Selma looks to make the right decision in moving away from a city-run garbage system to one operated by a private company — a company that specializes in handling garbage.

The devil is in the details.

As the city works through the transition in the coming weeks and months, there will be plenty of questions, plenty of time for discussion and plenty of late nights as city officials and Advance Disposal officials work through their checklists.

In the end, for this to be ultimately successful, the customers who rely on routine scheduled pickup of their household garbage and trash should feel no pain — whether it be in delays in service or dramatic increases in fees.

Also, it is important that the projected savings to the city in this change are realized and those savings reinvested in city operations appropriately.

Forgive us when we say that we know garbage is a stinky business, but a garbage system run poorly smells much, much worse.