The Meridian City Council is looking to add some weight behind its solid waste contract with Waste Pro to make sure residents, the provider and the city are all following the agreement.

In a meeting Tuesday, the council authorized a $5,000 task order for Waggoner Engineering to check Waste Pro’s house count against the city’s numbers and identify any differences. The house count is used to calculate what the city pays for the garbage service, which is then recouped from residents on their monthly bills.

Prior to signing the contract with Waste Pro, which went into effect Oct. 1, 2022, the city was paying its previous vendor for more than 12,000 customers. Based on population loss, the council believed that number to be significantly higher than what was actually being picked up.

Public Works Director David Hodge said Waggoner will conduct an “internal audit” to find discrepancies in the data from Waste Pro and the city. The engineering firm will then physically go and see if garbage service is being provided at those locations or not.

The work is expected to take two to three weeks, Hodge said.

In addition to the house count, the council is also looking to address areas where garbage is accumulating along the curb. While the city’s previous contract allowed for unlimited pickup, the Waste Pro contract is limited to the provided 96-gallon can and one additional container up to 50 gallons and/or 50 pounds.

A grace period to allow residents to adjust to the new rules ended in January.

The change in service, however, has not stopped some residents from continuing to put out extra garbage despite it being ineligible for pickup. Others have taken to dumping trash at abandoned homes and vacant lots throughout town.

Councilman George Thomas asked what the city was doing to notify residents the garbage would not be collected and that they need to find another way to dispose of it.

Community Development Director Craig Hitt said that issue is handled by the city’s code enforcement officers. The officers will go talk with the resident or homeowner and explain that the garbage cannot be left on the curb. If the issue still persists, the city can issue a citation summoning the resident to a hearing in environmental court.

Those needing extra garbage picked up on a regular basis can also contact Waste Pro to have more garbage cans delivered for an additional monthly fee.

Residents can also dispose of ineligible garbage themselves by taking it to the Pine Ridge landfill, located at 520 Murphy Road, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The landfill accepts municipal solid waste, tires, construction and demolition debris and other non-hazardous waste.

Hitt said the garbage issue will also be impacted by pending changes to the city’s sidewalk ordinance, which is being updated to clarify that homeowners are responsible for maintaining the area between the sidewalk and the curb. The updates also include authorizing code enforcement staff to issue fines for noncompliance, he said, which would also apply to the garbage.

On the other side of things, Thomas asked what the city is doing to make sure Waste Pro upholds its end of the contract by picking up everything it should. Some residents have complained they put out garbage that should have been picked up but wasn’t.

City Attorney Will Simmons said the city’s contract with Waste Pro does provide a way to fine the solid waste provider if it doesn’t follow through on its end, but the council and Meridian residents need to contact Waste Pro when they see issues. Not only does Waste Pro need to have an opportunity to fix the problem, he said, but reporting any issues to the company also creates a record that can be used to enforce the contract terms if that becomes needed.

Often, residents put out trash that is ineligible for pickup or put it out after the truck has already come and gone, Hodge said. Either way, Waste Pro’s trucks are also outfitted with cameras, he said, and the company can quickly pull up footage of a stop once a complaint is received.

In other business, the City Council voted to move $1.2 million from the legislative special projects fund for the 2023 fiscal year to the 2024 fiscal year and designate it for road paving. The move is the first time in recent history the city has dedicated funding toward paving in its annual budget.

Legislative funds are controlled specifically by the council and cannot be spent by the city administration. The council previously moved funding from unfilled positions throughout the city to the legislative fund. At the time, the council said it planned to reallocate that funding toward other uses as it had not been used for salaries. Some of the funding has since been returned to city departments.

Councilman Joe Norwood Jr., who brought the matter to the council for consideration, said Tuesday’s action was just to earmark the funding going into the new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Further discussions will be had later on about which roads to pave with the money, he said.