MOULTRIE, Ga. — Colquitt County Commissioners are considering whether to charge a hefty fee to clean up after evicted tenants.

County Administrator Chas Cannon presented the proposal at a work session Tuesday, and commissioners may vote on it as soon as Jan. 4.

Eviction is a legal process with a number of rules established by state and local laws. One of those rules is the landlord must remove any belongings the tenant leaves in the house and put them on the property near the right-of-way so the tenant can return to get them. They are not to be placed on the right-of-way, but county staff said Tuesday that there are many places in the county where the right-of-way isn’t marked.

The rules don’t say how long the belongings must be left there for the tenant to get, County Attorney Lester Castellow said.

“They [the landlord] can put it out in the morning and haul it off that afternoon,” Cannon agreed.

The problem the county is facing in some places is that neither the former tenant nor the landlord is doing anything with the property once it’s been placed beside the right-of-way. Stacy Griffin, the county’s solid waste manager, said in at least one case, neighbors began piling their own trash in with the former tenant’s property as if it was a dump heap.

The amendment to the solid waste ordinance, as it was presented Tuesday, enables the county to collect any such belongings left for more than 24 hours and take them to the landfill. It also establishes a fee of $1,500 for the clean-up. That fee would be added to the garbage bill for that location, a bill that is paid by the property owner.

The proposal said the fee compensates the county for manpower, equipment and supplies used in the cleanup, but discussions Tuesday made it clear the county staff intends it to be an incentive for landlords to remove the property themselves.

Commission Chairman Denver Braswell expressed concerns, particularly with a phrase in the ordinance “at or near the public right of way.” He asked if that meant the county could go onto private property near the right-of-way to remove the former tenant’s belongings. Griffin assured him the county couldn’t do that, but Braswell still didn’t appear convinced.

He asked if the sheriff’s office can currently ticket a landlord who left the tenant’s belongings in the right-of-way, and Cannon said the county has done that but it hasn’t solved the problem.

“Right now we don’t have a tool to clean it up,” Cannon said.

In other action Tuesday, the county Board of Commissioners:

• Approved the consolidation of two adjacent lots on Sherwood Court and Tanglewood Drive. Both lots are owned by the same person, county Compliance Officer Justin Cox said. He said a water system maintenance easement puts a proposed house too close to the property line.

• Reluctantly approved the purchase of a transport van for the sheriff’s department. The preferred bid of $56,281 was well over the $40,000 that had been budgeted. The county received three bids — two from Creative Bus Sales ($54,350 and $56,281) and one from Yancy Bus Sales & Services ($85,717)— and the sheriff’s office preferred the more expensive of Creative’s two bids, which featured a better seating system. Capt. Julius Cox of the sheriff’s office told commissioners no local company bid on the van, and Creative Bus Sales did not give an estimate of when the van would be available.

• Approved the doubling of the fee for late payment of garbage bills from 10% or $20, whichever is greater, to 20% or $4, whichever is greater. Commissioner Marc DeMott voted against the change, arguing that an additional $2 fee is unlikely to encourage a delinquent property owner to pay up.

• Agreed to provide the Moultrie-Colquitt County Airport Authority with the proceeds from the sale of timber that was harvested from county land at the airport. This has been a long-standing practice but requires a vote by commissioners. Commissioners DeMott and Mike Boyd abstained as they also serve on the airport authority.

• Heard a presentation from Elections Supervisor Wes Lewis about the redistricting of the county following the 2020 census. Lewis said ideally each district would have 7,560 people in it, which none do. Pressed by commissioners, Lewis said he believes the current district lines are within an acceptable deviation from that average population. If the districts don’t change, the map does not require outside approval; if they were to change, the new map would have to be reviewed by state officials. The county no longer needs to receive prior approval from the U.S. Department of Justice, Lewis said. Commissioners have previously stated that they’d prefer the voting map to remain the same if that’s legally possible, and they repeated that position Tuesday. Traditionally, the Board of Commissioners and the Colquitt County Board of Education make their voting districts the same, so commissioners urged Lewis and Cannon to confer with the school board in hopes school officials will agree to keep the current districts.

• Heard the results of the annual audit by Carr, Riggs & Ingram. The audit covered the fiscal year that ended June 30. The auditors are waiting for information from the Colquitt County Health Department to complete the audit, but otherwise the county appears to be in good financial shape, Tom Carmichael of Carr, Riggs & Ingram told the board.