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Century Council Talks Trash; Forgives Overdue Payments; Hawkins Blasts The Tri-City Ledger
January 8, 2008
The Century Town Council voted unanimously to forgive 16 garbage bills totaling over $13,500 at their first meeting of the new year Monday night.
The 16 customers received letters back in December claiming that even though they were never billed, they owed the back garbage fees. The largest amount of the 16 accounts, just over $2,200, was owed by the Alger-Sullivan Historical Society, according to the letters.
“We are not trying to worm our way out of anything,” said Jerry Simmons of the historical society. He said the society received a call asking when it was formed, and that was 1988. They then received a back garbage bill for service back to 1988 from the Town of Century.
Simmons (pictured left addressing the council as Mayor Freddie McCall listens) said the group met in homes for 13 years, and former Mayor Benny Barnes waived all garbage and other utility fees for the group when they moved to their current location in 2000.
“There’s 13 years right there that somebody made a mistake on,” Simmons said. He said the new administration starting charging the historical society for garbage service in March 2005, even though there was no can at the historical society’s museum. “If we owe anything, it’s only about 18 months of garbage,” he said. “It’s not 18 years of garbage.”
Pastor Idainer Bradley of the Cry Aloud Spare Not New Testament Holiness Church told the council that the $1,467 that the town claimed the church owned was not correct.
“We never had a can,” she said. Bradley said the church got a garbage collection can in “the middle of 2007″, and had been billed for and paid for service since November 2006.
“Do we really want to treat our citizens like that? We made a mistake,” new council member Ann Brooks said.
Council member Nadine McCaw made a motion that the town “start from this day forward with the records right (and) wipe everything off”. The motion was seconded by Sharon Scott and passed unanimously.
Hawkins Blasts The Tri-City Ledger
A complete listing of the 16 accounts — seven commercial and nine residential — was printed in the January 3 edition of The Tri-City Ledger in an article that lists Ledger Editor Joe Thomas as the author. That article upset council member Henry Hawkins.
Hawkins said he disagreed with the city releasing the information to the newspaper, and he disagreed with the Ledger for printing the information. The council was not aware of who owed the past due garbage amounts, he said. “It’s bad when I’ve got to read about it in the newspaper.”
Hawkins called for all town employees that had access to the bills to get a letter of reprimand for allowing the information to be provided to Thomas. Hawkins directly asked Thomas who provided him with the information.
“I’m not going to say,” Thomas replied.
“It is public record,” said Brooks, referring to the list of past due accounts. While Allied Waste provides the actual trash pickup in Century, the service is under city contract and each resident or business using the service is billed by the town. Under Florida law, most utility bills from a municipality are public record.
Other Business
In other utilities related business, the council also voted to change the water non-payment cutoff date to about the 25th of each month.
“We just cut off too quick,” said Brooks. Currently, bills are dated the first of each month and are due by the 15th. On the 16th of the month, a $5 late charge is added and service is suspended on the 20th.
Since meters are read on or about the 25th, Brooks suggested that the cutoff date be changed to the 25th to save labor costs since the meter reader could disconnect a past due account while reading the meter instead of making a special trip.
Brooks also asked that the town conduct an assessment of street lights, especially along Highway 29 near the town’s southern limits.
Mayor Freddie McCall said he would meet with Gulf Power and assess the condition of streets lights billed by Gulf Power to the town. He said some may not have been replaced after Hurricane Ivan.
Pictured above: Century Town Council member Henry Hawkins holds the January 3 issued of The Tri-City Ledger that contains the names of commercial and residential garbage accounts that the town said were past due. NorthEscambia.com photo.
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