City to charge residents garbage collection fee

Royston King

The Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) will be moving to charge residents a per barrel fee for garbage collection from the start of next month, Town Clerk Royston King announced yesterday, while saying it would be used to assist the cash-strapped municipality in offsetting the extremely high cost of the service.

The implementation of the fee, which King said could be $200, comes just a few months after the city began charging businesses monthly fees for the collection of commercial and industrial waste.

From September 1st last year, city businesses classified in three categories, small, medium and large, have been billed $5,000, $8,000 and $12,000 per month, respectively, for garbage disposal. At that time, King justified the need for the introduction of the fees by stating that the council must spend in excess of $50 million per month to dispose of the city’s waste. There was no mention of a fee for residents at that time.