The Pickett County Commissioners revisited transfer station rate increases Monday night before ultimately deciding to move ahead.
On August 18, the transfer station will increase their rate from $50 per ton to $95 per ton. The decision will also raise the minimum rate for trash weighing less than 50 pounds to $7.60. Mayor Stephen Bilbrey said people have called asking to push the increase back, but the commissioners decided not to delay the process.
“I mean we know, and they know. that we’re going to have to go to the $95, it’s just whether you do it now or do it later,” Bilbrey said. “I mean, it’s coming. None of us want it to come, none of us want it to happen, but it is inevitable.”
People who wanted to delay the increase were doing so to help people on fixed incomes better prepare for the added expense, as the minimum rate for drop offs will nearly double. Bilbrey said he just wanted to ensure the decision was made before advertising it at the transfer station.
Bilbrey said if the commission wanted to, the county had enough money in reserves to push the rate change back a few months. Bilbrey said there was enough money in fund balance to delay the increase to early 2026.
The rate increases will also affect trash collectors. Shane Huddleston, the owner of a local trash collection business, said he attended to listen to the discussion, not sway it. Huddleston said his rates would likely increase.
“I’ll base [my rates] on a lot of different things,” Huddleston said. “You’re looking somewhere between $30 and $40 a month from $20 a month. I’m not talking Larry Brown or Larry Anderson, I don’t know what they’re going to charge, but that’s what I’m looking at.”
Huddleston said transfer station rates are his company’s main expense, although it is not 100 percent of the expenses. He said raising rates is the only thing he can do. Huddleston said the people on fixed incomes would struggle the most.
The commission was asked how many Pickett County residents own property. Bilbrey said it was around 40 percent of residents. Commissioner Tony Beaty said he previously favored a sales tax increase so residents could take on less of the burden of trash rates.
“I don’t think 40 percent of the people should pay for all the businesses and everybody’s garbage,” Beaty said. “Businesses, and I’m not talking Shane, I’m talking the marinas, the grocery stores. They’ve got commercial haulers hauling their garbage. And if we subsidize it, we’re going to subsidize it for everybody, not just the haulers and for the private citizens.”
Commissioners discussed raising the transfer station minimum rate even further to $8 for trash weighing less than 50 pounds. They ultimately decided to leave the increase at $7.60, which did not require a formal action.
In other business, the Pickett County Commissioners approved the surplus of a 2005 Chevrolet pickup truck and a pallet grinder.
Commissioners approved recommendations from the Road Committee to remove Fred Clark Lane and 1,100 feet of Crockett Road from the County Road System.