Power board holds off, asks details

Shelbyville's power board voted Tuesday evening to table any discussion over collecting a controversial trash fee from residents until they get more details from city officials.

The city council passed the $11 monthly fee at the end of June by a vote of 4-2 as part of the 2010-2011 budget to help deal with a $770,000 budget shortfall, and one of the possibilities for collection could involve the power system.

City manager Michael Dill has mentioned previously that the fee could possibly be added to a resident's water or power bills, but the council has yet to work out the details about the issue.

Manager David Crowell of Shelbyville Power, Water and Sewer said that the board chose to table any discussion on the topic until they can get details in writing on how the city wants to proceed with the fee collection.

According to Dill, some residents won't have to worry about the monthly fee, such as those who live in apartment complexes that dispose of their garbage in private dumpsters and the 342 city residents who have official state tax relief status.

One of the concepts being looked at is the city acquiring a garbage collection system similar to what is used in Tullahoma.

Shelbyville currently uses three men per truck to manually pick up trash, but Dill has said that fees could be collected so that the city can go to a single operator with a truck that carries a robotic arm that would seize garbage containers and dump them into the vehicle.

The idea of a trash fee was proposed last August, but the city council voted it down, saying that the public was overwhelmingly against the move.

Former city manager Ed Craig told the council last year that a trash fee could save the city as much as $700,000 a year -- but residents would also have seen an additional $9 tacked onto their monthly electric bills.

Craig explained at the time that an automated garbage system would also save money for the city in workers' compensation, where the rate is high for sanitation jobs.

The automation proposal would eliminate four jobs at a savings of $150,000, but they would not be terminated, but absorbed into the department by attrition.

According to a Municipal Technical Advisory Service report, trash fees in other cities range from $9.20 (Pulaski) to $13.43 (Manchester).

On Monday, Tullahoma's Board of Mayor and Aldermen passed an ordinance requiring a property owners will soon be charged a $168 annual fee for the collection of garbage, brush, limbs and leaves.

Tullahoma is facing a budget deficit of an estimated $450,000 and Mayor Troy Bisby said that the fee would get the city back on track financially and allow the board to cut property taxes, sparking business interest.