County approves solid waste ordinance amendments

The Houston County Board of Commissioners discussed last month a proposal from solid waste management that included a possible implementation of a fee for residents who failed to comply.

Terry Dietsch, landfill superintendent, said the county was/is having issues with some residents who are placing solid waste out for pick up and either putting out items that cannot be picked up or not placing items in the correct way the solid waste ordinance calls for.

Some examples Dietsch gave for items that cannot be picked up, are/were household items, tires, construction debris and fencing with nails. Dietsch said items that can be picked up, such as yard debris, is not a problem until residents don’t properly bag leaves or have logs that are bigger than eight inches in diameter.

Dietsch went on to propose that they do not want to just resort to a fee, but more so develop a process. That process would include first marking the noncompliant piles. After a week, the county would then mail a letter, notice of warning, which would give the residents two additional weeks to correct the matter. Dietsch said if residents don’t comply after sending the notice of warning, the residents would be charged a fee of $125 for the county to come and pick it up.

Chairman Tommy Stalnaker and the board agreed to move forward with amendments to the Code of Ordinance, Houston County, at Chapter 50 – solid waster sections 50-1; 50-5; 50-37; 50-41; 50-44; 50-45; 50-46 and 50-58. However the commissioners held two public hearings as well as two readings of the amendments before coming to a vote at their Oct. 20 meeting.

At Tuesday’s meeting, commissioners unanimously approved the amendments to which County Attorney Tom Hall said the changes were found to be necessary to define different types of waste and inform residents the best way to dispose of such waste in order to avoid being charged additional fees for waste removal. The amendments also line up with the proposal that Dietsch presented last month.

Commissioners also approved, Tuesday, the disbursement of $1,725,946.01 from the 2018 (county-wide) SPLOST funds to the Perry-Houston County Airport Authority for use in the construction of a new terminal building and corporate hangar at the airport. The comptroller is authorized to make the necessary budget adjustment.

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