NATCHEZ, Miss. – County board President Kevin Wilson cited grievances Monday against Adams County’s garbage collector.
“It appears the trash company is not doing a very good job,” Wilson said as the county Board of Supervisors listened to a resident gripe about the $35 monthly garbage-collection fee county households must pay for twice-a-week pickups that often prove unreliable.
“I’ve heard these complaints over and over again,” said Wilson, pointing to beefs that include the contracted waste collector missing the scheduled pickups to haul out county households’ trash and using “the same old beat-up trucks.”
The county board contracted New Orleans-based United Infrastructure Services in 2023 and imposed a $20-a-month garbage tax increase on about 5,700 county households to help pay UIS for collecting the trash. This sharply divided the board 3-2, with Wilson the most outspoken dissenter against retaining UIS and making Adams County residents pay the $35 monthly garbage tax. The increase amounts to $240 more a year each household outside Natchez must pay for their curbside trash pickups.
“People like me can’t afford to pay this,” Nancy Saucier told the board as she presented her complaints. None of the supervisors Monday other than Wilson responded to her concerns during the meeting.
Wilson and Supervisor Wes Middleton voted against hiring UIS and the tax increase but were outvoted by the three other county supervisors: Angela Hutchins, Ricky Gray and Warren Gaines. The three supported UIS as the best of the other companies bidding for the trash contract, and they said the trash rate increase was justified for continuing the twice-a-week collection and paying UIS about $2 million annually for the service.
United Infrastructure Services of Louisiana is a reorganized rendition of the garbage collector the Adams County board had contracted since 2018 but went bankrupt in 2022. The company Metro Services Group – among the South’s leading Black-owned businesses – was cofounded by Jimmie Woods, who remains as UIS’ chief executive officer. Woods is also on the LSU Board of Supervisors, which he currently chairs.
The $35-a-month garbage fee Adams County residents pay for UIS’s service is higher than the $30.44 Natchez households are now paying to have their trash collected by Arrow Disposal Service. The Natchez Board of Aldermen raised the rate effective this month from the previous $24.15 monthly tax for 5,600 households inside the city. This helps pay Arrow to haul away trash three times a week (including one for recyclable waste) and twice a month for yard debris. Natchez households also each get two wheeled garbage carts.
The contract the county board made with UIS does not call for recyclable pickups or carts provided to county residents.
While the board Monday did not publicly discuss the complaints against UIS, Wilson has said poor service could be grounds to nullify the garbage-collection contract the county has with the company.
Action taken at Monday’s Board of Supervisors meeting did include directives for a Ratcliff Road landowner to clean up his property full of old tires that’s been deemed a public nuisance. The site has accumulated so many tires he’s gathered to fix for many years that they’re hindering the public road and prompted complaints from neighbors. The tire dump caught on fire several months ago that firefighters had to combat.
In other action Monday, county supervisors authorized sheriff’s deputies to be posted at the Natchez-Adams County pool amid concerns of disorderly conduct.
The public swimming pool at Liberty Park “needs consistent security there,” said Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten.
Gray agreed, pointing to the potential of drownings when pool patrons misbehave. “Problems and water don’t mix,” he said.
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