Alderman Dr. Jack Varner said he has no more excuses to give for the complaints surrounding the city’s garbage collection.
“I have made every excuse I can think of,” he said, during Monday’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting. “I am out of excuses.”
Varner said he has recently been bombarded with complaints about garbage collection within his Ward 2 district. From garbage not being picked up to cans being left in the street, he said nine out of ten complaints center on the city’s solid waste department.
“Some few years ago, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted to go into a private business, being garbage pickup,” Varner began. “At that time, we thought we could do a better job or as good of a job as BFI or Waste Management at as good of a price or cheaper.”
Varner said the city of Yazoo City has been successful in the business venture...until now.
“Unfortunately, it’s not true anymore,” he added.
Varner admits he has given citizens excuses.
“I have told them our trucks break down,” Varner said. “Our tires blow out. We are out of gas. It’s too far to go to Jackson or Canton to empty them. It’s our personnel. I have even blamed some of them on Aubry (Brent Jr., alderman).”
But Varner said he has no more excuses.
“If BFI or Waste Management had the contract to pick up our garbage and was doing the job as sorry as we are doing it, we would ask our attorney to find a way to break the contract,” he said. “If we don’t fix the garbage shortly, in two years the voter will look for a way to replace this board.”
Alderman Gregory Robertson said he understands where Varner is coming from with his concern.
“A lot of my complaints are about the garbage pickup or the lack thereof,” Robertson said.
Mayor Diane Delaware said a few city employees recently visited the Greenwood’s Public Works Department to compare operations. The visit was made to hopefully find solutions and ways for Yazoo City to improve its own system.
The city of Greenwood has 45 employees within the entire Public Works Department, which covers Parks and Recreation, the Street Department, Garbage, Trash and Recycling.
“The city of Greenwood Public Works Department is very well organized,” a report submitted by city engineer Wayne Morrison reads.
The city of Greenwood has specific job duties aligned. Their three garbage trucks are leased and use side-mounted arms to pickup the garbage cans.
“We timed on a single street that they picked up a can between every 10 to 15 seconds,” the report reads.
Trash is often collected by people working off municipal court back fines in Greenwood. And the city brings in over $500,000 a year with Dumpster collections.
Delaware said she was impressed with Greenwood’s efficient operations.
“We should not have people hanging off the back of garbage trucks anymore,” she added.
Delaware urges the citizens to be patient with the city as they investigate solutions to the recent problems.
“We will take a look at all of the options available to us,” she said. “Right now, we need your support. We need your vigilance. And we need you to know that we know that we need to improve garbage pickup, solid waste and the street department.”
Delaware said these problems are nothing new.
“It has been done this way for years,” she said. “But it won’t be done tomorrow. It will not, and some things will go wrong.”
Delaware also praised the street department for addressing the ditches, canals and drainage within the city.
“In two years, the city of Yazoo City has not flooded, and it did not flood the other day. We all know...that under normal circumstances, had we had that much rain, downtown would have flooded. There would have been flooding in Yazoo City.”
