After a late start for a council meeting that went late into the night, New Brockton council members and residents in the audience talked trash between shouts and accusations of what to do about the garbage truck. In the end they voted 4-2 to let bids for garbage pickup, with Mayor Lenwood Herron and Councilwoman Lee Etta Edwards in opposition.
Council member Jimmy Peacock said, “I do not want the garbage truck back,” while Edwards said the garbage truck was the “only thing bringing money into the town.”
Peacock told the council that “problems arise with a garbage truck besides a payment. You’ve got expenses of fuel, employees and you have certain liabilities. I just think we can’t handle it at this time.”
Holley said the Alabama Department of Transportation had “pulled over the truck and it didn’t have numbers on it from DOT.”
Herron said it had talked to the DOT and the garbage truck didn’t have to have numbers on it.
Holley replied that “you are wrong. It does have to have the numbers on it. Why then did they pull it over?”
Herron kept asking what happened to the money from the garbage fees.
Town Clerk Lisa Pannell replied that “you know what happened to the money. We’ve had to pay payroll tax, insurance, payroll and you’ve spent exactly $67,802.19.”
Pannell read from a long list of payments made from 2008 through 2012.
As members of the audience stood up and replied to comments from Herron and the council with no order of business, Jeff White first made the motion to continue garbage service with the current Waste Management until the town could conduct the bid process.
White’s motion was not heard due to the noise that had erupted in the audience.
Holley then came back with a motion and a second by councilman Jackie Young to “let the truck go.”
The motion was approved with a four-to-two vote. Edwards and Herron voted against the motion.
Another issue dealt with Monday night was the bridge located on Byrd Mill Road. State inspectors deemed the bridge unsafe. Council members voted to close the bridge until repairs could be made. The closing of the bridge does not affect any residents, according to the council.
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