As city crews struggle to get garbage picked up after badweather and the holidays, Brookhaven aldermen Tuesday reaffirmedplans to discontinue commercial garbage pick up service at the endof the month.

City fathers at their Dec. 17 meeting voted to stop commercialservice Jan. 31, citing financial losses in that area of solidwaste operations. The board also voted to require pine straw andyard clippings to be bagged for pick up.

“Our plans are to get out and stay out,” said Ward 1 AldermanDorsey Cameron last night about the end of commercial service.

Cameron’s comments came after Ward 4 Alderman Bob Massengillreported receiving several calls from merchants inquiring about thecity’s plans.

Massengill said the merchants wanted to make sure the city wasdiscontinuing the service before signing one-year contracts withprivate garbage disposal services. The alderman also mentionedconcerns expressed to him about the sight of dumpsters around thecity.

The topic of garbage and trash was raised several times duringTuesday’s meeting. Another discussion focused on city efforts toget caught up on garbage services after the holidays.

“We had so much bad weather and time off, we got behind,” saidMayor Bill Godbold.

Ward 2 Alderman Terry Bates cited other reasons for delays.

“Our equipment has been down, and we’re short of help,” Batessaid.

Godbold also mentioned non-city residents bringing in garbageand leaving it on city streets.

Godbold said sanitation crews were working until five or sixo’clock in the evening to pick up garbage. Street department crewsare also participating in the garbage effort.

Several aldermen mentioned piles of garbage or trash that hadbeen on the street for a month. Officials said they have been andwould be concentrating on addressing the worst areas first.

James Arnold, sanitation department superintendent, said manyresidents are putting more loads of trash and garbage out as soonas one load is picked up. Cameron expressed concerns about goingback and picking up at those locations when other areas still havenot been picked up the first time.

“We just can’t keep it picked up because they throw it outthere,” Cameron said.

In addition to ending commercial service, another garbage changeis that bags of yard clippings are to weigh no more than 45 poundsand tree limbs put out for disposal are to be no longer than threefeet. The bagging-related changes are aimed at allowing crews tohandle those items more efficiently.

Bates expressed a desire for citizens’ help and understanding ofthose changes.

“What we need is for the citizens to be working on that now,”Bates said.

Ward 3 Alderman the Rev. Jerry L. Wilson expressed concernsabout older residents on fixed incomes who pay to have yardsraked.

“It’s just going to be hard on them. That’s what I look at,”Wilson said.

Other officials said there were some things over which they hadno control, and citizens would have to understand that someservices will be handled differently.

Massengill said some residents were unaware of the city’slimited revenue options for dealing with solid waste.

To support solid waste services, the city may use only usersfees and a small tax levy on property taxes. Given that, Massengillsaid the options are to economize or go up on rates.

“We’re just trying to come up with the best solution we can,”Massengill said.

At the end of Tuesday’s meeting, aldermen went into executivesession for personnel reasons related to the solid wastedepartment.

Aldermen took no action after the closed meeting, but a specialmeeting was called for Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. That meetingwas also expected to be a closed meeting regarding solid wastepersonnel.

“It’s trying to work out some problems we’ve got with it,” saidWard 5 Alderman Tom Smith, who requested last night’s executivesession.