By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Chiefland City Commissioners plan to take a closer look at Waste Pro and its record of garbage collection in the city before the company’s three-year contract comes up for renewal next month.

            Mayor Chris Jones and commissioners were in agreement Monday that they may shorten or amend the legal agreement.

            Commissioners felt Waste Pro has cleaned up most of the problems of missed garbage pickups or late garbage pickups, but they aren’t sure whether they want to renew the contract or for how long.

            “They have certainly got better,” said City Manager Laura Cain.

            There was also a question of whether the penalties imposed for late pickup should be returned to the customers or the city.

            The city was flooded with complaints from residential and business customers for a period of time when Waste Pro was missing garbage pickups on certain routes. It became an aggravating problem. City officials logged the complaints.

            Williston ran into similar problems with Waste Pro and cancelled the contract this year after providing the company with notice. When bids were opened by the City Council, GFL was the low bidder and got the contract.

            A few problems surfaced with GFL during the transition period from one company to the other, but apparently, those have been cleaned up.

            Waste Pro blamed a lot of its problems with erratic garbage collection in both cities on a shortage of drivers. The worst of the driver shortage occurred during the COVID-19 economic shutdown but continued for some time afterward.

            City Attorney Norm Fugate said the city may want to give Waste Pro the required 90-day notice for cancellation of the contract to ensure they come to the table for negotiations.

            The city must decide by the third week of September on whether it wants to renew the Waste Pro contract and for how long. If the contract is cancelled, it must give the company 90 days of notice.

            Raising Cemetery Lot Prices

            In other business, commissioners voted to raise rates for cemetery lots at Chiefland Cemetery. The low price for lots resulted in residents from other communities from outside Levy County buying lots at Chiefland Cemetery.

            The rates for Chiefland residents for a single lot has been raised from $200 to $300. Residents living outside the Chiefland city limits will get charged $500 for a single lot.

            A quarter lot, which can accommodate four burials, will sell for $900.

            Out-of-county residents can only purchase single lots. The price is $500.

            Jones said there had been misinformation circulating in the community during the election that the city commission was trying to raise rates on cemetery lots in two private cemeteries. He said the rumor wasn’t true and he has provided accurate information to officials in charge of those cemeteries. The lot prices are being raised only in Chiefland Cemetery.

            Commissioners noted that the city is slowly running out of space in the cemetery. Part of what was driving the problem was cheap lot prices. The cemetery lot prices hadn’t been changed since the 1980s.

            Buie Park Water

            The city was criticized during the recent city election for not having enough public drinking water sources available at Eddie Buie Park in south Chiefland. Shane Keene, the city’s water facilities manager, indicated there are a couple of operating water faucets in Buie Park, but some of the public water fountains were lost to vandalism.  There is one water fountain in the park. Some water faucets were turned off and locked due to irresponsible waste of city water or breakage.

            In one incident, Jones said the city paid for $1,000 of wasted city water when vandals left water faucets turned on intentionally. Some people used city water at the park for washing their cars. Contrary to popular belief, wasted water at city parks doesn’t flow free of charge. The city pays the bill for wasted city water. Water use is metered at the parks. Parks and Recreation gets billed for lost water. The city also pays for facilities damaged by vandalism.

            Buie Park and Strickland Park have been heavily damaged by vandals over the years, but Buie Park has taken the biggest hit. Community leaders have asked for more drinking water facilities at Buie park. Buie and Stickland Park have one water fountain each. Keene told commissioners at Monday’s meeting he could add a couple of spring-loaded drinking spigots to water faucets at Buie Park if it was the board’s will. The spigots would work like a water fountain. The water would turn off automatically when the user is finished.

            The city hasn’t decided what to do about a concession stand at Buie Park. In response to a commission question, Keene said a portable building could be transported to Buie Park for use as a concession stand if the city gives him the money to do it.

            Jones noted that many of the facilities at Strickland Park were provided by Chiefland Area Athletic Association, the private group that operated the city’s recreation program for many years. Now there are two recreation programs operating in the city. The other is Tri-County Athletic Commission.

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City of Chiefland Regular Meeting August 9, 2021; Posted August 9, 2021