At its regular June meting Monday night, the Trenton City Commission opened and accepted the one bid it had received for garbage service for the town. The sole and successful bidder, Nooga Waste, will receive $3050 monthly to collect garbage once a week at Trenton homes, with the city paying the transfer station tipping fee. That’s up $150 from the city’s last contract.
The city has not really changed vendors; the last contractor sold his business to Nooga Waste, explained City Clerk Lucretia Houts and Trenton Mayor Alex Case.
There had been some discussion last month about allowing suitable businesses to opt in for city garbage pickup. It was clarified at this meeting that Nooga Waste already does collect garbage for some city businesses, charging them by the container.
“What if we have residents that want to purchase those?” asked Streets Commissioner Monda Wooten of the standard garbage containers.
Then Nooga Waste will be happy to supply them, replied the vendor, and at a better price than they could get from stores like Lowe’s or Home Depot. The company would also be happy to sell containers in bulk, complete with the city logo, to Trenton itself, ascertained the mayor, who expressed concern about animals knocking over residents’ smaller garbage cans and strewing trash, making the city streets unsightly.
But enough about garbage. Let us move on now to certain city merchants who do not mow the lawns of their properties, making the city streets unsightly.
This was a subject broached by Streets Commissioner Wooten. “It really looks bad on us all when the grass is really high,” she said. “It’s not fair to the rest of us.”
Commissioner Wooten said she would send city inspectors to try and instill some municipal pride into the bosoms of the herbaceously challenged property owners. “We just want everybody to be part of the team,” she said.
In other business, the commissioners reappointed Patty Nethery to the board of directors of the Dade Public Library. They shuffled money from one SPLOST (special purpose local option sales tax) account to another but had no new SPLOST expenditures this month.
Police Commissioner Sandra Gray reported that collected police fines had been $29,574.16 in May for a year-to-date total of $120,961.24 so far. She had Police Chief Christy Smith describe plans for “Touch a Truck,” a children’s gala the Trenton PD has scheduled tentatively for July 28 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. in Jenkins Park. This, explained the chief and commissioner, will be an opportunity for kids to get up close and personal with interesting official vehicles such as ambulances and police cars. They will also try to round up some Jeeps and other military vehicles.
Parks and Recreation Commissioner Terry Powell said the civic center had been rented for 127 hours last month and that the city pool was doing a brisk business after opening May 26. Fire and Utility Commissioner Jerry Henegar was away at his day job as a Cobb County firefighter, but Mayor Case said his department still has grant-financed smoke detectors for any Trenton resident who needs one—call City Hall at (706) 657-4167.
In her monthly report, Commissioner Wooten said her department is keeping the city sidewalk verges mown and edged from City Hall to Ace Hardware. “I’m really passionate about these sidewalks,” she said. Commissioner Powell said she had sent him manpower to help keep the park looking nice, too.
But manpower, it appears, is at a premium. The mayor and commissioners discussed personnel in a lengthy executive session after the regular meeting and came back to announce they were looking for seasonal workers to help keep Trenton beautiful during summer events such as Touch a Truck and such as the July 4 extravaganza described at the June 11 meeting by Nathan Wooten. (That event, and Wooten's presentation, will be discussed in an ensuing Planet article.)
So: Do you need a summer job? Know anybody who does? How do you feel about the mowing of grass and the eating of weeds? Or how do they? Not scared of bees, are you? Interested parties may call City Hall—again, (706) 657-4167.
Mayor Case proposed that individual commissioners begin meeting with him about next year’s budget. He reminded them that the Dade Tax Assessor’s office had adjusted a good chunk of Trenton houses—including his own—upward, with an increased dollar-per-square-foot value for vinyl or aluminum siding, but that the city had also had a bad year for workers’ compensation claims. “Every line item on our workers’ comp is up,” he said.
Besides Nathan Wooten, also appearing was Dade Public Library manager Marshana Sharp, who reminded all that the federally-funded free school lunch program for kids is only for June this year. Kids can receive the lunches Monday-Friday at Dade Elementary School and Jenkins Park from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. The library also serves the lunches on the weekdays it is open, Tuesday-Friday, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Ms. Sharp said the library’s annual Summer Reading program was rocking along heavier than ever this year, with 270 in attendance at the first installment last week. Programs begin at 10:30 a.m. each Thursday and are packed with treats and adventures for the kids. She invited city commissioners to attend the final one on July 19 to recruit youthful attendees for their Touch-a-Truck event.
The Trenton City Commission meets at 6 p.m. on the second Monday of the month at City Hall.
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