Residents In Jackson, Mississippi, No Longer Receiving Trash Service, Here’s Why
The Mayor of Jackson has been battling the City Council for two years over which collector to use, and the failure to come to a consensus let the city’s contract with their previous service expire, leaving residents with no idea what to do with their garbage.
The mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, has left the town’s residents in a heap of trouble after failing to properly negotiate trash service contracts with the City Council. According to NBC News, the Mayor of Jackson has been battling the City Council for two years over which collector to use, and the failure to come to a consensus let the city’s contract with their previous service expire, leaving residents with no idea what to do with their garbage. The bad news comes in addition to the unpredictable clean water conditions in the town, the terribly maintained streets riddled with potholes, and the increasing gun violence in the area.
Now, mountains of plastic garbage bags pile up on the street, cardboard boxes are being stacked like Lego blocks, and vacant homes are becoming makeshift landfills with no trash service available to collect the Jackson citizens’ waste. Rightly, residents of the town are growing increasingly angry, blaming the elected leaders and preparing for a public health crisis.
Because more than a quarter of the city’s residents live in poverty and don’t own cars, it is incredibly difficult for them to bring their garbage somewhere else to drop off. They relied on the trash service provided by the city to keep their streets clean. Something that the town’s leadership has failed to do.
“This is absolutely ridiculous. We have all of the problems with crime, potholes, dilapidated buildings, and we are putting our effort and energy into garbage,” said Tim Norris, a resident of Jackson. Norris owns a restaurant in town called Mom’s Dream Kitchen that serves Southern cuisine. After becoming fed up with the Mayor of Jackson and the City Council for their lack of hiring a trash service, as well as everything else, Norris is prepared to move his restaurant (and the income it brings the city) to another town.
The failure to renew the trash service contract came after two years of fighting over who to hire once the original contract came to a close. Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and some City Council members couldn’t agree on whether or not to renew Richard’s Disposal for $54 million or to find a new service. After two years of arguments over the matter, the city’s leadership came to a vote, which resulted in a 50/50 split with three leaders voting for renewal and three against, with one leader abstaining from the vote altogether.
City Council President Ashby Foote voted against the renewal with Richard’s Disposal, claiming that moving forward with the company for another year would not reflect in a professional manner. Although the trash service came in at the lowest bid compared to the other removal companies, Foote was not happy with Richard’s Disposal’s evaluation ratings. However, the citizens of Jackson might argue that having no trash service at all is way less professional than having a low-rated company that will still remove the garbage off the street.
By the town’s laws, a trash service must be approved by the City Council in order to have a contract signed. However, city officials are currently waiting to hear if a judge will allow the City Council to bypass these laws so that Mayor Lumumba can hire a collector directly. Hopefully, the people of Jackson will have their trash service reinstated soon.
