Several property owners still aren’t sold on the new garbage ordinance recently approved by the Lamar County Board of Supervisors that would discontinue county garbage pickup at duplexes that are adjacent to other multi-family residences.
During Thursday’s board meeting at the William J. Gamble III Chancery Courthouse in Purvis, supervisors received a total of 16 requests for reconsideration or variances on the ordinance, including one from a Hattiesburg Realtor who said the ordinance is discriminatory.
Misty Corts, property manager with ReMax Real Estate Partners, told supervisors that the ordinance discriminates against property owners and renters because it would force many duplex owners to pay for their own garbage service and rent individual Dumpsters, raising rent costs for residents. Corts, who attended the meeting on behalf of several individuals who own duplexes on North Windridge Lane, Center Windridge Lane and Howell Road, said the matter came to her attention after seeing a letter from supervisors saying they would discontinue sanitation services in those areas.
“We have a valid interest in fair housing as real estate agents in Lamar County, and we take that very, very seriously,” she said. “This is cost-prohibitive to a lot of owners, in terms of providing their sanitation. We want good neighborhoods, we want good areas, but we don’t want discrimination against these families that live in these properties.
“What’s going to happen is, this is going to raise those rent rates ultimately. When those leases expire, those owners are going to increase those rent rates, and these folks are living month-to-month – they’re working in the restaurants you guys eat at, they’re working at the mall that you guys shop at, and they can’t afford this additional cost.”
The county currently handles garbage pickup at multi-family housing units, but supervisors voted to accept the ordinance after approving new automated garbage trucks, which are expected to arrive in the coming days. The ordinance was accepted July 2 by a 3-2 vote, with Board President Joe Bounds and District 5 Supervisor Dale Lucus dissenting.
Other requests included on Thursday’s agenda came from owners of property on including properties on West 4th Street, Raintree Drive, Emerald Row and Griffith Road. Property owners have 120 days from the ordinance’s acceptance to request exceptions, during which time supervisors will take the requests under consideration.
In the meantime, the county will maintain the same garbage pickup service as in the past.
Lamar County Administrator Jody Waits said the goal of the ordinance is to clean up some multi-family housing units that had become problematic around the county.
“We’ve got large apartment complexes and duplex developments that have a large amount of trash cans around them, and the trash is spilled everywhere and all over the streets,” he said. “It just became a nuisance, so the board passed the ordinance.
“It was originally enacted to help clean up the county, and in fact has done so in many areas, because a lot of owners have taken responsible actions to go ahead and get Dumpsters and take care of the problem.”
Waits said the county’s current method of pickup does help to clean up the county, but it can become a problem for rear-loading garbage trucks – or even an automated system – to pick up hundreds of garbage cans in one location.
“With all those cans sitting there, it’s more apt for trash to get everywhere,” he said. “So most communities, most counties, most cities, require most commercial and multi-family housing to provide their own sanitation by way of Dumpsters – it’s a cleaner, better way to do it.
“The law says that you can levy one mill (one thousandth of a dollar) for sanitation services. Taxes are levied on all property owners for the good of the county.”
Corts said the new ordinance is unreasonable because many of the housing lots are too small to accommodate a Dumpster without placing them in front of power poles, water meters or sewer areas.
“And a big green box is going to be ugly,” she said. “It’s going to be smelly and unattractive.
“We can’t control if dogs get in the trash, we can’t control what the sanitation workers do after they dump the cans and put them back on the ground. However, those folks deserve sanitation, just like I deserve sanitation at my personal residence.”
District 4 Supervisor Phillip Carlisle said the board is more than willing to work with property owners on the particulars of the ordinance.
“This board has no history of discriminating against anybody – we understand the law, we study the law, we have an attorney who interprets it for us,” he said. “Things that the law allows us to do, we consider acting on, and that’s all we’ve done here.
“So if that’s discrimination, that’s a flawed description in my mind. We have responsibility for 500 square miles of Lamar County, and since I’ve been in office, we’ve had some real problems, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid. So we’re willing to work with them.”
