Moultrie City Council made it almost all the way through Tuesday night’s meeting without hearing the words “garbage containers.”

The council handled a number of routine matters before opening the floor to citizen comments. Even then, of the three people who rose to speak, two had complaints related to utility bills.

After the second speaker sat down, Jimmy Yarbrough looked around to make sure no one else was about to stand, then he approached the podium.

Yarbrough, a former county commissioner who lives on Fourth Street Southeast, urged the council to approve a proposal to switch from in-ground garbage containers to a roll-out variety.

The proposal, presented at the council meeting two weeks ago, promised to save $700,000 over 10 years, according to City Public Works Director Danny Ward. Early savings would come from reducing pick-ups to once a week from the current twice a week because the roll-out containers hold more than the in-ground pails. Later, the city would purchase garbage trucks with dumper arms that could be operated from inside the truck, so it would no longer need to employ temporary workers to carry the garbage to the truck.

One impetus for the change is the Affordable Care Act, which Ward said will increase the city’s cost for health care for those temporary workers. While he said no one can accurately judge how much more that cost will be, the smallest increase he mentioned was $2 per hour per person.

Yarbrough on Tuesday emphasized the savings.

“I want to see us start saving money where we can,” he said.

He said the city brags it hasn’t raised millage rates , but it has frequently raised utility rates — water, sewer, electricity, garbage collection, natural gas and optional cable and internet are all included in one bill.

“That’s really getting into the fixed income people’s pockets,” he said.

He also said his neighbors fill their in-ground container and don’t press the lid down, so dogs get in it and strew the garbage. Ward’s presentation two weeks ago included photographs showing similar problems around the city.

Yarbrough said he’d bought his own roll-out container because he’d had so much trouble with his in-ground one rusting out. He scoffed at criticism that the wind would blow them over or that they were hard to roll to the curb.

“I’m 76 years old and I can roll it out,” he said.

In other action Tuesday, the council:

• Signed a proclamation naming Moultrie a “Purple Heart City” in support of wounded veterans. It became the third such city in Georgia, following Tifton and Valdosta. Lee County has also signed a similar proclamation, and the state Legislature is considering making Georgia a “Purple Heart State,” according to the Facebook page for the Military Order of the Purple Heart Chapter 1000 in Tifton, which presented the proclamation to the Moultrie council.

• Held a show-cause hearing for Gursharan Sekhon, owner of Args Quick Serve LLC, 1350 Veterans Parkway. An employee there sold alcohol to an undercover operative for the Moultrie Police Department who was under 21 years of age. Sekhon was offered the choice of a $1,000 fine or loss of his alcohol license for 30 days; he chose the fine.

• Approved an alcohol license for the sale of beer and wine for off-premises consumption for George D. Plymel Jr., owner of Plymel Food, 800 Ga. Highway 133 S.

• Approved an alcohol license for the sale of wine at Rite-Aid, 305 Sixth St. S.E. Supervisor Theresa King already has a license to sell beer; both licenses are for off-premises consumption.

• Approved a resolution in support of the Federal Communications Commission, which is looking at efforts in some states to limit cities’ ability to expand telecommunications infrastructure, especially broadband. The City of Moultrie is a partner in CNS, which provides cable television and broadband internet services.

• Approved first and second readings of changes to the Peddlers Ordinance, the ordinance governing panhandling, and the Disorderly Conduct Ordiinance. These changes must be approved at a later meeting to take effect.

• Set a $10 fee for use of credit or debit cards at Municipal Court.

• Appointed Todd Taylor to the Historic Preservation Commission and reappointed Lillar Shepheard to the Moultrie-Colquitt County Planning Commission. Both terms will end Dec. 31, 2016.