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VALLEY — Valley residents won’t have to deal with AmWaste anymore. There’s a new solid waste provider in town, and the citizens will be getting a break on their garbage bills. Come spring, however, they will be paying a little more on their monthly bills.

This was the central topic of discussion at Monday’s meeting of the Valley City Council. Mayor Leonard Riley said he was glad to be through with AmWaste but that higher bills would have to be going out in May. 

To comply with the current contract with C&C Sanitation, the monthly bills will have to increase a few dollars if the city is going to break even on garbage collection service.

At the present time, most people are being charged $20 a month for the service, seniors are charged $16.50 a month and slightly more than 100 city residents get their service for free due to inability to pay.

“It’s not our goal to make money with garbage collection,” Riley said. “We just want to break even.”

To do that, Riley said, the bills will need to increase to $26 a month for most residents with seniors being charged $20 a month.

This won’t be decided until the Feb. 13 council meeting. The council appointed a five-member committee to study the city’s current solid waste ordinance and to make recommendations for possible changes to the full council at that next regular meeting.

The committee includes Council Members Jim Jones, Marquetta Madden and Kendall Andrews, Code Enforcement Officer Reid Riley and Solid Waste Enforcement Officer M.J. Jones.

By maintaining the current monthly rates through the month of April, Riley estimates that the city will be losing around $105,000 until the new rates go into effect.

“It will be like we are giving them a month’s free service,” he said. “They deserve at least that much for what many of them had to deal with last year with AmWaste.”

In 2022, many Valley residents complained to their council representative of poor garbage service. Some people did not have their garbage picked up for several weeks. Filled cans were frequently seen by the curb with more bags of household garbage piled up next to the can.

The mayor and members of the council expressed satisfaction with the job being done thus far by C&C. AmWaste still has some of the roll out carts to collect from Valley residents. Citizens are asked to make sure they leave their trash in a C&C cart.

In other business on Monday, the council approved a resolution to renew an annual contract with Data Works Plus LLC of Greenville, South Carolina. It’s in the amount of $2,100 and provides for standard software and hardware support for Valley Police Department. Chief Mike Reynolds has been authorized to execute the agreement.

Reynolds recognized two of his officers for exemplary service. Sgt. Lorenzo Harris is VPD’s Officer of the Quarter (October through December 2022) and Officer Zach Peacock was given a commendation on some good work that was seen by many local people on Facebook. A video clip he didn’t realize was being recorded showed him going to exceptional lengths to help someone in need.

Chief Reynolds made the point that it makes all police officers out there feel good when social media videos show them doing good things.

Some surveying equipment in the city’s Planning & Zoning Department was declared surplus. The council agreed to sell it to former Planning & Development Director Travis Carter for $2,500.

“Since we have no one who knows how to use it, it would be just siting around and gathering dust if we kept it,” the mayor said.

Valley Parks & Recreation Director Laurie Blount told the council that winter sports would soon be winding down and the registration for spring sports would begin on February 1st. Spring sports will include youth baseball, softball, coach pitch, T ball, soccer and track.

When the meeting adjourned, members of the Solid Waste Ordinance Committee met in the conference room to discuss how they will go about reviewing the present solid waste ordinance.