Countywide garbage pickup has worked well for our community. Anyone who disagrees should visit counties that still have the dumpsters at crossroads that often are abused with all sorts of scattered debris, attracting stray dogs, cats and other critters.

Unfortunately for our community, there are those who have refused to pay for their services which puts them in violation of county ordinances and places a burden on those who do obey the law.

Two years ago, the unpaid services amounted to nearly $800,000. It goes without saying that these arrears should never have been allowed to mount, given that the county has a process to force payment via issuing fi fas where the property owner either pays up or his property is sold to cover the costs. A chunk of the bill has been collected but much remains in arrears.

Since the revelation of those debts to the county and to the taxpayers, some fi fas have force payments and due to statute of limitations, we are told, some debts will have to be written off. Meanwhile, county officials are trying to work with property owners to get these overdue fees collected.

It is the responsibility of the property owner to pay these garbage pickup fees. If the property owner figures those charges into his rent then that’s a matter between the property owner and the renter. But regardless, when the smoke clears the owner holds the bill.

Some property owners received the garbage service when there was never even an account assigned to them, therefore no bill was sent. That was an error in the initial management of the garbage system that is now being corrected. One should expect that an honorable person receiving the services would have inquired why they did not receive a bill and would have helped rectify the mistake. One would also think an honorable person, where debts will be written off due to technicalities, would also rise up to their responsibilities.

We encourage property owners who have failed to pay for their services to work with county officials to right these wrongs and let’s move forward with a system that works well for our community.