‘I apologize we didn’t do our job’
After taking office less than a year ago and encountering multiple problems, including large financial barriers, Hardeman County Mayor Jimmy Sain announced changes coming to the Hardeman County Solid Waste and Landfill billing system. The changes, according to Sain, are a result of the county not enforcing a policy put in place two years ago.
Sain said the policy was if the renter of property did not pay the landfill fee for three months, after three months the property owner would be notified the bill has not been paid. However, the notification of unpaid bills had not been taking place until Sain took office. As a result, when the county began issuing bills to property owners for unpaid landfill fees from renters, bills were ranging from $200 up to $600.
“Some of these bills are three years old,” Sain said. “The law says it is a tax and the property owner is responsible for the bill.”
Although renters were being billed for the nine dollar monthly fee, Sain said less than half of the landfill fees were being collected after the county took the billing over from Bolivar Electric Authority (BEA) a few years ago.
“I apologize we didn’t do our job,” Sain said. “The land owners should have been notified and were not. The Director of Solid Waste was given that responsibility to make sure it happened and it did not.”
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