Judge Cannon Addresses Rumor Of New Trash Service Starting In County: Says It Can't, Won't Happen As-Is

County's Waste Management Plan Calls For One Vendor: Service Must Be Bid For Entire County

Darren Doyle, story:
Edmonson County Judge Executive Wil Cannon updated the fiscal court on what he said was a rumor that a county resident was starting his own competing trash collection service.

Cannon said that according to the county's five-year waste management agreement and a county ordinance, this cannot and will not happen in the manner that this new service has supposedly been announced.

"In that management plan, and some of you went to the same training I went to, it recommends that we have one vendor for the entire county so that we can collect the correct stats on how much garbage is collected in this county, and how much garbage this county deposits into landfills," he said in today's meeting. "We have to have this information in order to fulfill the 5-year sold waste management plan. If we've got numerous or more than one entities doing garbage pickup, we're not going to have good numbers."

Cannon also said that this agreement, which contracts Scott Waste to handle all of the trash pickup in Edmonson County, also allows Edmonson County to receive grants for litter abatement and tire disposal each year. He also said Scott Waste provides the dumpsters for the annual countywide cleanup at no additional cost.

Scott Waste also pays a franchise tax to the county, which is one dollar for every bill paid each month, which is somewhere around $50K per year.

"The reason I'm bringing this up is that I believe that this person is going to try to start up a garbage collection at some point in time," Cannon stated. "And it's also, I feel like, it's our duty to protect customers from people like this that are going to jump in and out of this business--jump in, collect money, and leave without providing the correct services. We've looked into the amount of money it takes to start up a business like this and I don't think you could even start to think about this for less than half a million dollars with the price of trucks and things like that."

Cannon said it's also possible that this individual could also be planning on providing this service in a pickup truck for a handful of people, but he'd also be in violation if he did that. Magistrate Edd Rich asked if this was an in-county or out-of-county person, and Cannon said the individual lives in Edmonson County.

"He's a person we've had dealings with in the past, and you'll know him when he pops his head up, you'll know him," Cannon said. The Judge also said that in the event that any new garbage company wants to do business in Edmonson County, they would be required to submit a bid to the fiscal court that would service the entire county.

"If he wants to place a bid for the entire county, he's more than welcome," said Cannon. "But if he starts up an illegal business on the side, then we will prosecute him through the county attorney's office."

The Judge did not release of the name of the individual in today's meeting due to the situation only being a rumor at this point; however, Cannon said he wanted to ensure that magistrates understood the county's position on this in the event that the discussion moved forward.