Augusta officials briefed on Coastal takeover of trash service, recycling rollout and vote to pursue sale of CNG fueling assets

Coastal Waste & Recycling representatives told Augusta–Richmond County commissioners that they have trucks and drivers in place to start the city’s new solid-waste contract and outlined a timetable to relaunch subscription recycling while the commission debated how to pay for ancillary services. The contractor’s senior vice president, John Casagrande, said the company has trucks in Augusta and “we were able to hire 10 of the 12 incumbent drivers from Zone 1,” and that subcontractors will continue to handle some bulk collection. Casagrande said Coastal will remove roughly 68,000 city recycling carts beginning Aug. 1, accept signups for subscription recycling through a public web portal and deliver new branded carts “sometime in November.” He said citywide curbside recycling collection is expected to begin “January 1,” without specifying a year. Why it matters: The county’s new contract replaces prior arrangements and changes recycling from a universal curbside service to a subscription model. Commissioners said they received many constituent questions about timing, signups and how old carts will be collected. Commissioners and staff described the operational plan and communications work that must follow. Administrator Allen said county customer-service staff and the contractor have prepared flyers and a website sign-up; Commissioner Tina Slendak and others urged a coordinated county communications push so residents receive consistent information. Coastal’s plan and drop-off sites: Casagrande said Coastal will buy and supply the new blue carts with green lids and that the company expects to accept residents’ signups immediately when the pickup of old carts begins. He also said Coastal will provide three or four staffed drop-off containers (satellite sites) for residents who do not sign up for curbside recycling; the contractor would collect those containers and deliver recyclables to the North Augusta processing facility. CNG fueling facilities and procurement authorization: Engineering staff and the utilities director told the committee that the new contract does not require compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles, and sought permission to market and sell the county-managed CNG fueling facilities. The committee approved a motion to authorize engineering and environmental services to initiate an RFP/procurement process to sell those assets; the vote was unanimous. Budget and fee debate: Administrator Allen briefed commissioners on the county’s “waste collection fee” funding gap and presented two example rate paths to cover direct contract costs and ancillary services such as vacant-lot maintenance, mosquito control and demolition work. Allen said the county had not applied earlier CPI escalations required by prior policy, leaving a growing deficit. She said one option would not cover ancillary costs while a higher-rate option would, and recommended commissioners decide whether to include ancillary costs in the fee or fund them from the general fund. What commissioners decided: The governing body did not set a final consumer rate at the meeting. Commissioners voted to defer the fee decision and referred the matter to a special-call meeting so staff could return with additional scenarios. Commissioners also asked staff to analyze an interim option — raising fees for out-of-county commercial and self-haul customers — and report back before the commission’s next full meeting. Discussion vs. decision: The committee received Coastal’s operational update as information and approved the procurement authorization to sell the county’s CNG fueling facilities (formal action). The fee-setting discussion produced directions to staff (analysis and follow-up) and a referral to a future commission meeting for a formal rate decision. Next steps: Staff will provide the requested analysis on out-of-county/self-haul fee scenarios and a refined timeline for recycling signups, old-cart collection and new-cart delivery. Coastal and county staff will coordinate public outreach; the commission will set the final waste-collection fee at the later, special-call meeting.