Nelson County judge-executive: unpaid garbage bills total 'hundreds of thousands', county pursuing collections

Nelson County Judge-Executive Tim Hutchins told listeners that the county has discovered a substantial backlog of unpaid garbage and dumpster accounts that stretches back several years and could total "hundreds of thousands" of dollars, possibly approaching a million.

Hutchins said the county is auditing records, tracing when missed bills began, and has started contacting delinquent account holders. "We started going after them," he said, explaining that collections require legal steps — county attorney involvement and sheriff’s service of papers for court action — and that some accounts are hard to locate.

He also said the county is revising ordinance language to give staff clearer legal tools to collect unpaid dumpster accounts and other fees. Hutchins cautioned that collection actions must be done legally to avoid exposing the county to liability.

The judge-executive framed the backlog as a major operational and fiscal problem, second only to courthouse repairs: "it's a complicated mess" that will require staff time and legal resources to resolve and may require structured repayment plans where appropriate.

A caller from Greer Estates, Sharon, praised recent road grading work, telling Hutchins, "you have been great about grading our subdivision," which Hutchins accepted as public appreciation for county crews. That comment came amid Hutchins’ broader discussion of county operational priorities.

Next steps Hutchins described include continued audit work to quantify outstanding balances, ordinance revisions to improve collection authority, outreach to identified delinquent account holders, and legal enforcement when required. He did not list affected account names or give a final tally of unpaid balances during the broadcast.