WINNSBORO, S.C. — Residents in the Town of Winnsboro will soon be paying more for trash pickup.
“People are mad," said Winnsboro resident Nicole O'Brien. "They’re upset.”
O'Brien is one of many residents not excited about a coming surcharge on their bills for trash pick up. It all comes as officials say Fairfield County has implemented a solid waste disposal fee on the Town of Winnsboro.
“That charge, which is costing the town over $200,000 a year, is something we, unfortunately, are now going to have to pass on to our residents,” said Town Manager Jason Taylor.
Taylor says residents currently pay $15 dollars a month for trash pick up for yard debris or waste. Now an extra $5 dollars a month will bring the bills to $20 a month.
“We’ve tried to resolve the situation with the county. It's been unsuccessful," Taylor said. "We're at the point where we have to because we’re losing a considerable amount of money on this service. It's a very good service we provide to our citizens, but again we either have to add that fee or discontinue the service.”
He says the town never had to pay to use the county dump.
“It covers the cost of the waste we collect and then dispose of at the landfill. We had a previous arrangement where the town and the county put together an agreement where the town was exempt from these fees, and so we had been operating under that arrangement for many many years, and then under the previous county council and chair, the county decided to implement this fee on the town. The town objected at the time. We thought that we may be able to work it out, but we couldn’t so the town filed suit.”
The town filed a lawsuit against the county regarding this issue back on March 30th, 2022. So far, there is no official date for when it will go to court.
News19 reached out to the county for a response to this report. Deputy County Administrator Synithia Williams sent an email saying:
"The county doesn’t have a comment at this time on the solid waste issue due to the ongoing litigation."
Taylor says if they do come to a resolution with the county, any and all charges would be dropped and the town would refund residents if the county is willing to refund all of the money.