MOULTRIE, Ga. — Roll-out garbage containers are coming, but it’s too soon to stand by the roadside in anticipation.

Answering a question raised at Tuesday night’s Moultrie City Council meeting, interim City Manager Mike Stewart said delivery of the containers is expected in September or October. He said he couldn’t make an accurate guess how long it would take to distribute them once they arrive.

The city announced in early February that it would stop using in-ground garbage containers in favor of the rolling variety.

Council voted against the move in 2008 after several residents voiced opposition. The proposal was floated again in 2014 but no action was taken.

But circumstances changed at the beginning of this year. City garbage trucks were being staffed primarily by temporary workers from a Moultrie temp agency, but in December the agency informed the city it would not be able to provide the workers after Jan. 1 because it could not get workers compensation insurance for them. A few, large injury cases involving the company’s temp workers on garbage trucks for the City of Moultrie, Colquitt County and other municipalities had made them uninsurable.

The city was able to get temporary workers through another agency at a significantly higher cost, city administration said at that time.

Under the roll-out system, residents would roll their containers to the curb on pick-up day. A garbage truck, equipped with a lift device, would stop beside it, and an operator inside the garbage truck can grab the container with the lift, dump it into the back of the truck and set the container back down. Then he can drive to the next house, and the resident can retrieve the container at his convenience.

Once the roll-out system is in place, the city will dig up the in-ground containers that it’s used for decades and fill in the holes. That process is expected to take about two years, according to one of the earlier presentations to Moultrie City Council.

According to previous presentations on the issue, the plan is expected to save money on maintenance of the garbage containers and by all but eliminating temporary workers in the solid waste department, once the plan is fully implemented.

In other action Tuesday, the Moultrie City Council:

• Approved a memorandum of understanding with the Colquitt County Archway Partnership for continued service. Archway is a liaison between local governments and the University of Georgia’s College of Public Health that seeks solutions to local problems through the university’s research efforts. Archway Director Whitney Costin said UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government is beginning work on an economic impact study to show what effects Archway has had on Colquitt County; that study should be available late this year.

• Approved two applications for alcoholic beverage licenses for off-premises consumption: One for Nitinkumar Patel, owner of Sainath Investment LLC, doing business as Rich Oil, 1424 N. Main St. (sale of beer and wine); and the other for Glenn M. Gray, owner of Variety Package, 422 N. Main St. (sale of beer, wine and liquor).

• Heard concerns from resident Jeron Bridges of Second Street Northwest. Bridges raised the question about roll-out garbage containers, but he also voiced concerns about speeding on his street and the general level of violence in the community.