New Fiscal Year and Trash Collecting Equipment

We are at the end of another Fiscal Year for the Jackson County Fiscal Court. On June 30[th][,] we will close out the current Fiscal Year, and on July 1[st][,] we will start into the new one pending the final approval of the budget at today's meeting. The department for local government has reviewed and approved our budget and submitted it back to us for approval. 

There are always things that come up that you don't expect but the budget gives us a good idea of how we can operate in the coming year. 

One thing we are going to have to look at is updating our trash collecting equipment. We have 2 large trucks in operation with compactors but on the smaller roads we are using pickups and our employees are having to handle the trash twice. This becomes unsanitary quickly and is putting extra strain on employees that doesn't have to be necessary. I am working on getting quotes for small compactor trucks to replace the pickup trucks that I will present to the Court for consideration once the quotes come in. 

We are also looking at replacing our current hopper system at the transfer station with an open top system that most transfer stations in the State are using now. Our current hopper system uses a hydraulic compactor that pushes garbage into a large trailer that has been causing more problems than usual. The pump for that system is currently down and is in Knoxville being rebuilt. It is taking a long time to rebuild the pump because the parts have become obsolete and are hard to find. We haven't had a working compactor at the transfer station in several weeks due to this problem and the garbage has piled up quickly. Waste connections have been bringing us roll off dumpsters and we have been using an excavator to load them as they come in. The problem is getting better but will not be resolved until we replace the current system. Until we have everything in place we will work at it as best we can. 

Have a blessed week