Computer glitch had delayed the increases
The Century Town Council tabled a resolution raising the garbage rates for residential customers Monday night to reflect the 4.93 percent Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase allowed in the contract the town has with Republic Services.
According to Town Clerk Leslie Howington, garbage rates in the billing system have ranged from $16.98 to $24.85, with an additional can at $5.64 monthly. Garbage service in Century currently is one can picked up once weekly by Republic with curbside debris being picked up twice, the first and third Tuesday per month, by the town.
Someone who is paying $25.34 now will see a $1.25 increase, making the new rate $26.59 for service with one garbage can. Each additional garbage can increased 28 cents, from $5.64 to $5.92.
A service fee of $3.35 to cover the cost to the town to manage the garbage was added. The CPI was not increased on the service fee.
“One of the things I discovered was that the coding in the computer was inaccurate and there was a variety of rates,” said Howington. “I was charged $22, which was one of the highest, and a neighbor was charged $18. There’s no rhyme or reason. There are different codes and they have different rates, so whoever got that code, got that rate.”
Howington said she, Mayor Ben Boutwell and town CPA Robert Hudson discussed it when the discrepancy was discovered. She said she and other co-workers are working to get the rates correct across the board.
“These bills are going to be right,” said Howington. “They are going to go up because the last two years at least, resolution was passed to increase, but the rates were never increased in the computer.”
Council members expressed concern that residents’ bills will go up suddenly and Howington reiterated the rates were increased by resolution but never increased in the computer to actually reflect the rate increase.
Howington said the change should have been in December 2022, but town employees were still trying to figure out the discrepancy. The increments should have been smaller if the rate increases had been reflected in the town’s computer billing system, but unfortunately, the increases were not input into the software.
“The rates were adopted by resolution in 2019, 2020 and 2021,” said Howington. “However , the customers were not charged accordingly.”
Councilwoman Dynette Lewis made a motion to table until the next council meeting Tuesday, Feb. 21. Councilwoman Sandra McMurray Jackson seconded it and the motion carried unanimously.
