By Betsy Finklea
The decal policy for the convenience (trash) sites was taken up at the Dillon County Council meeting last week.
Councilman Harold Moody presented two proposed decal policies.He said the Public Works Committee recommended the following version as the policy: “Any person(s) may be allowed to purchase a decal, for a fee of $90, for dumping at the Dillon County Convenience (Recycling) sites. This is not limited to Dillon County residents only. As always, Dillon County Convenience Sites are used for household waste only. No businesses are allowed.”
Councilman Buzzy Finklea said that he lives in the town of Latta, and he had received several phone calls about the decal requirement.
Finklea said this was done before he was on council, but the people he talked to said that the people in town pay county taxes and the county does not provide them anything because the town provides them with police and fire protection.
He said he couldn’t say that after the county council had just prior to this agenda item approved the use of $686,184.59 to help the town with their infrastructure issues.
Finklea said the people he spoke with are concerned about recycling, and Latta does not have recycling. Finklea said he hoped that the county would put recycling bins in Latta so the people could recycle.
Finklea further stated that he had two Latta citizens who wanted to be on the agenda to speak about the issue. He said they were put on the agenda and that the chairman (Archie Scott) saw fit to strike them off. Finklea said he thought they should have been allowed to speak.
Finklea said he would like for the the council to look into designating a time where citizens could get on the agenda and speak for three minutes or some designated time or have a sign up roster at the meeting. He said he thought this was something they should look at in the future.
Chairman Archie Scott told Finklea that he appreciated him bringing this up and his concern for his constituents. He said that the reason he took them off was because the county was working on a way to provide recycling.
Councilman Harold Moody said that if a citizen was concerned enough that they wanted to recycle, he thought they should help. He said they would sit down with the municipalities to discuss this.
He also said that as far as the decals go, he thought they should look at numbering them and changing colors. He called it a “work in progress.”
H. Moody said that the county decided to take this step because if the increasing costs of taking the trash to Lee County and the amount of trash that was coming into Dillon County from out of county and out of state. H. Moody said these were the reasons that they even considered this.
Councilman Andrew Graves said he also had been approached and asked about the decals. One concern from his constituents is that many do not have a car and have to walk to the convenience sites to dump their trash. County Administrator Clay Young said they would need to take their decal with them. Graves said everybody in Dillon County does not have a car, and they needed some rules and regulations regarding walkers.
Chairman Scott said that if they paid county taxes they should have a sticker.
Goings said that many people do walk to the trash site and that the sticker could easily get misplaced. Councilman Bobby Moody said if someone walks up to the convenience site that the attendants should exercise enough common sense to handle it. “You don’t have to be stupid about things like that,” B. Moody said.
H. Moody made a motion to approve the version one decal policy. This was seconded by Councilman Joe Johnson. The motion was approved.
