NATCHEZ, Miss. – City residents will have to pay about $27 more a year to have their trash collected. The Natchez Board of Aldermen on Tuesday approved the rate hike in response to the city’s contracted trash collector charging Natchez more.
The new $22.17-a-month garbage fee on each household is up from the $19.90 that’s been in place since 2018. The trash-pickup charge is tacked onto the monthly bills city residents receive from the Natchez Water Works.
This comes after the Board of Aldermen earlier this year raised the water-sewer charge that Natchez residents began paying in July to generate more revenues for maintaining and improving the city water system.
The city’s garbage collector – Arrow Disposal Services of Alabama – is charging Natchez more in the coming year due to economic inflation, such as the higher costs of gas, that Arrow takes into account for the increase.
The new monthly garbage-collection charge still “maintains a reasonable rate,” said Mayor Dan Gibson as it rises nearly $10 more than what Natchez residents were paying each month four years ago.
The garbage fee increase approved Tuesday is projected to generate about $1.4 million in the fiscal year that starts Saturday, according to the city budget. That’s about $230,000 more than what the fee brought in the past fiscal year.
The Board of Aldermen hired Arrow in 2018 to replace Waste Pro as Natchez’ curbside trash collector. That’s when the $19.90-a-month garbage fee was set – an increase from the previous rate of $13.74.
Arrow collects residential trash three times a week (twice for regular trash and once for recyclables).
The monthly garbage-collection fee also includes a $1 fee for the city’s mosquito-control efforts.
—
The board approved a $2-an-hour pay raise for Natchez police officers that Gibson said is needed to help recruit and retain them and be competitive with other employers. This is the first pay raise they’ve received since 2018, according to the mayor. The money for this is in the city budget the board previously approved for the new fiscal.
—
Aldermen revised the city’s land-use laws to add medical marijuana establishments to the types of commercial enterprises allowed in the city’s highway business and medical zoning district. This covers the area surrounding Merit Health hospital.
The board previously enacted a new zoning ordinance in August to allow medical cannabis pharmacies only where most of Natchez doctors and clinics are concentrated near the hospital on Seargent Prentiss Drive – a district that encompasses Jeff Davis and Highland boulevards along with Tracetown shopping center.
Mississippi legalized medical marijuana earlier this year.
Comments