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Century Approves Garbage Rate Increase, Mayor Disputes Balance Sheet
December 12, 2019
The Century Town Council unanimously approved a rate increase for garbage service Tuesday night, as the mayor disputed the town’s own balance sheet showing a profit for the garbage department.
The town currently pays Republic Services $14 per resident per month for a single 95 gallon can pick up per week, plus varying fees for commercial customers. The town tacks $2.98 onto the $14 charged by Republic to cover administrative costs including billing, and adds $6.21 for debris pick up for a total rate of $23.19 per month.
Republic has exercised a provision of their contact that allows them to increase the rates they charged the town by 3.1% to match the Consumer Price Index. The council voted to pass the 3.1% Republic increase along to residents, increasing the monthly rate by 44 cents from $23.19 to $23.63 for single can pickup.
In an article published Tuesday, NorthEscambia.com reported the town’s garbage department showed a profit of $50,927.33. Of that, $41,000 was transferred to the troubled gas fund, leaving a positive balance of $9,927.33 in the gas fund at the end of the fiscal year. The numbers are clearly indicated on the town’s year end financial statement (pictured below).
Mayor Henry Hawkins took issue with the article, saying the financial statement created by the town’s accountant was wrong. He said the $6.21 debris pickup charges, amounting to roughly $40,000 last year, should have been shown in the general fund. That’s because, Hawkins said, the debris pickup is done by the street department that is operated from the town’s general fund. Then, he said, the $41,000 transfer to the gas fund should have come from the general fund.
If the $6.21 per customer per month had been recorded in the general fund ($6.21 x 12 months x 553 customers = $41,210), the garbage fund would have still shown a profit of over $9,000.
Pictured top: A special Century council meeting Wednesday. Pictured below: A condensed version of the year end financial statement for the Town of Century’s garbage fund. Click the image to see the full version. NorthEscambia.com photo/image, click to enlarge.
Comments
10 Responses to “Century Approves Garbage Rate Increase, Mayor Disputes Balance Sheet”
>> How much do people that live outside of Century pay for the same garbage pickup?
$24.16, but it’s a higher level of service from ECUA. ECUA offers the same 90-gallon container for garbage once per week, plus a 90-gallon recyclable container, plus a weekly pickup of yard trash, plus free pickup of bulky items like furniture, rugs and carpet, bags of clothes, etc.
ECUA offers a reduced lifeline ($11.50) and senior rate ($20.24) that Century does not.
So with all the bickering…just a question. How much do people that live outside of Century pay for the same garbage pickup? (Such as Molino, Cantonment, Pensacola etc)..
In response to (Non-resident/but bill payer on December 12th, 2019 4:05 pm)
I never said the people outside the incorporated area didn’t pay their bills, or taken care of, or any of that. You must of misread my comment.
What I did say is relates to this very thing. If Escambia County right now mandated Solid Waste service in ALL unincorporated parts of the county and made all of those citizens pay that bill, yet they took those revenues and funded something that supplies the incorporated areas in which the citizens there isn’t paying for. That is Illegal.
Not saying anything about anyone not paying their bill at all. We all know its no secret that,
#1 The Gas Department is losing tremendous amounts of money.
#2 According to Buzz there are no leaks!
#3 The Gas Department serves folks way outside of the Town limits.
#4 The Town is taking money that is mandated, (taxed) in my opinion, on the residents of this Town, and spending it on other departments that supplies people outside of Town.
If the Gas department is not making money then the users of the Gas service should pay for that. Not the users of the Garbage and phony mandated taxed “debris pickup”.
Century Resident, we outside of Century limits actually pay our bills. We don’t get our bills “taken” care of and we don’t tap into a gas line illegally. We also don’t get to vote your idiot Mayor and Counsel out of office. Nor do we put an ex-mayor on the by-law committed who allowed so many of these problem to escalate and allowed her son to get by with no bill for years!
So look to your town, cause if I were to get a debris bill out where I live, I stop buying city gas and go to propane.
So don’t cut off the hand that is obviously feeding your town!
And we wonder why the cost of living continues to inflate, these “inflationary” increases only leads to more inflation. Soon century could end up being Pensacola where rents are $1,000+ a month. It really does add up.
Garbage rate increase?
So how much for Hawkins!
Remember you got to have the extra money to make those personal loans, to the board members, buy cameras, ETC. The Century Town Council NEEDS A RAISE, for all their hard work.
SOOOOOOOOOO much wrong going on here. They must all be beyond the law, because there are just too many things going on that are illegal…:(
If the accountants numbers are wrong fire him or her, if the Mayor is wrong fire him on election day.
Few issues here.
First, if the debris pickup is ran by the street department and funded out of the general fund, then why bill 23.19 as Garbage? Get that wonderful accountant y’all got to create another revenue and expense account named debris pickup. Bill for debris pickup separate than garbage, and pay for debris tipping fees out of that expense account.
Second, if you are making 40,000 profit on the debris service then clearly that makes the $ 6.21 portion of “garbage” unjustifiable charged that is on the verge of a “tax”.
Third is simply this. The gas department serves customers outside of the incorporated area of Century. I do believe it is illegal to take revenues from a service such as the debris pickup that y’all mandated for all residents in the Town Limits and fund a gas department that serves the unincorporated area which does not have the mandated debris pickup fee.
Seems like an unjust taxation to me. And there is plenty of case law on this that I certainly will be bringing to your attention William. Keep reporting the facts sir, they squirm when the rubber meets the road!