POSTED: Thursday, March 15, 2012 - 9:20pm
UPDATED: Friday, March 16, 2012 - 10:31am
JACKSONVILLE, Texas — The city of Jacksonville is adopting a new ordinance that mandates trash pickup, and some local business owners aren't too happy about it.
Starting April 1, Jacksonville businesses will no longer get to choose who they do business with when it comes to their trash.
We spoke with one woman who does not like the city telling her what to do.
Stephanie Wilcox says she was told last week that starting next month, she can only use the company Allied Waste for her trash pick-up.
The city entered into a contract with the company in January.
"That's a little bit scary," Wilcox said. "If we don't have freedom when it comes to trash service, what's next?"
From Wilcox's understanding, the switch would be more expensive for her in the long run.
City Manager Mo Raissi says about 70 percent of businesses in town already use Allied Waste.
Raissi says the new contract will, in most cases, be saving people money.
He says it's the city's responsibility to make sure trash is disposed of safely and properly, as it will now only go into Jacksonville's landfill, which will help the city financially, too.
But for now, Wilcox has decided to take matters into her own hands ... literally.
"We're just gonna haul it off ourselves and dump it in the landfills ourselves," Wilcox said. "That's more costly, but if we use Allied Waste, there's no way to measure the cost. At least this way, we can regulate it ourselves."
Raissi tells KETK almost every other city around Jacksonville already has a mandated trash pick up, including Bullard, Rusk, Henderson, Kilgore and Palestine, to name a few.
Waste pick up for residential customers is done in-house.