Homeowners in south Augusta are likely to pay the same amount as other garbage customers if city trash service is extended later this year, the Department of Public Works reports.
New customers will get the same service that 38,000 city residents receive now - twice weekly household pickup and weekly recycling and bulky waste collection. They also can expect a smoother implementation than newly added customers saw in August, when 23,000 homeowners were added to city garbage routes with only a few weeks for haulers to provide cans and pickup information.
The city will provide information about the new service at public meetings during the next two weeks.
"These are meetings to provide those persons that will be included in the new start-up for garbage an opportunity to get information on what the services are," said Public Works Director Teresa Smith.
Augusta commissioners, who also will attend the meetings, will glean feedback from residents about whether they want the service. After the public hearings, the commission will vote on whether to award collection contracts to eight service areas.
"I'm expecting to hear that (my constituents) are still supportive of it," District 8 Commissioner Ulmer Bridges said Monday.
Several subdivisions in his district could be added to city routes, including Silvercrest, Green Meadows, Fernwood, Fairvale, the Nepture Road area, Windsor Spring Estates, the Harding Road and Floyd Drive area, and homes near Augusta Technical Institute.
The charge for collection appears as a mandatory $195 line item on property owners' annual tax bills, which breaks down to $16.25 a month. That charge is expected to be the same for new customers once service starts, likely some time early this summer.
COLLECTION MEETINGS
The following meetings have been scheduled to provide information about extending garbage collection to outlying parts of the county:
TODAY: District 4, 6:30 p.m., Gracewood Community Center, 817 Tobacco Road
SATURDAY: District 5, 10 a.m., Augusta Aquatic Center, 3157 Damascus Road
MONDAY: District 4, 6:30 p.m., McDuffie Woods Community Center, 3431 Old McDuffie Road
FEB. 12: District 5, 6:30 p.m., Belle Terrace Community Center, 2456 Golden Camp Road
FEB. 13: District 3, Sue Reynolds Elementary School, 3713 Wrightsboro Road
For more information, call 592-2085.
Reach Heidi Coryell Williams at (706) 823-3215.
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