The city of Selma held its first public forum with garbage company Advanced Disposal Thursday night in Selma High School. There will be eight more meetings, where residents can come and bring their questions and concerns, throughout the month of January.

In October the city council voted unanimously in favor of transferring the current city garbage service into the private sector. And in an effort to make the transition as, “smooth as possible,” a representative from Advanced Disposal said they are willing to look at every avenue they have to in order to get the word out about the logistics of the transition.  Mayor George Evans and representatives from Advanced Disposal fielded the questions from the public.

“Advanced Disposal has pledged to do everything they can to make this transition possible,” Lynn Gowan, a representative for the company said at the forum. “That is why the mayor has set up all of these meetings, to make the transition as smooth and seamless as possible.”

As expected several questions came from residents entailing specifics of the transition. Residents asked how much the garbage fee would change and there were several questions about how Advanced Disposal intends to deal with delinquents.

Garbage fees will remain exactly the same as the current city service provided. For quarterly pricing it will be $36 for residential service, $72 for backdoor services and $24 a month for commercial services per cart. Residents can also choose to pay monthly.

“If someone does not pay their bill we have something called stop service,” Billy Porter, general manager said. “If they have not paid by the 15th of the next month then the next time the garbage truck goes by there, the driver will have a list of suspended customers and he actually will not pick up the garbage at that address when he goes by. That is a friendly reminder before we have to repossess the can.”

Porter and Gowan said after they have stopped service and have exhausted multiple attempts to collect a payment two things will happen — Advanced Disposal will collect the garbage can and then they will call the city to send out a code enforcement officer. Once a cart has been taken, there is a $25 reinstatement fee to restart an account and get the cart back.

Mayor Evans and the garbage service representatives want to remind the community that everyone must sign up for the garbage service all over again.

“We are starting from scratch,” Gowan said.

To sign up, pick up a form at city hall, visit www.advanceddisposal.com or call 334-252-0458 and.

Everyone is encouraged to sign up prior to Feb. 1 when Advanced Disposal will begin to collect garbage.

The next of the eight community forums on the garbage transition will be Monday, Jan. 7 at 6 p.m. in Ellwood Christian Academy.