Waste service suspension leads to heated emergency meeting in Walthourville

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) -In Walthourville, an emergency city council meeting turned tense after Atlantic Waste Services announced the city’s suspension.

The suspension is due to a lack of payment from the city, and means that trash wouldn’t be picked up anymore starting on the 25th.

The mayor and council members all say home trash collection will still take place. Their plan is to pay what they owe to Atlantic Waste Services immediately, but a longer solution will be needed to keep the city’s waste services in the future.

“We don’t have the money to pay for everything right now and that is the bottom line. That’s the bottom line,” said Walthourville Mayor Sarah Hayes.

Citizens expressed their concerns at an emergency meeting Friday night that was called by Hayes.

“Bills increase costs increase but you don’t have revenue increase and that’s the problem,” Hayes said.

Residents say they were blindsided by the news.

“I had no idea that the city of Walthourville hadn’t paid for sanitation in three months,” said resident Robert Caines

A cause for the debt to Atlantic Waste Services is residents not paying their waste bills according to the mayor. This has caused those who DO pay their bills to question the council.

“They’re improperly using funds, they’re taking in money for sanitation or garbage and they’re using it to pay for employees, health insurance or other costs because they are operating at a loss right now,” Caines said.

Council members said they’ll look to get an audit to help understand their financial losses, something the community members asked for during the meeting.

“The accounting firm says that we can’t even qualify for grants as a city unless we do complete an audit, and there hasn’t been an audit completed for five years so I’m pretty sure we need to see an audit soon,” Caines said.

Members of the community said even after the meeting they are still left upset with questions.

“Walthourville has disappointed me since I moved here,” said city resident Arnold Moore.

The mayor says the city will struggle with getting past this, but they have a plan in place.

When we reached out to Atlantic Waste Services, they said this has been an issue since they started working with the city, with a consistent outstanding balance of 60 days past due.

The mayor says the city plans to make payments as soon as possible.