So far, so good on garbage collection for Clay residents

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So far, so good on garbage collection for Clay residents

On Oct. 1, Clay County residents got a new trash collection service and now county officials must wait to see if they made the right decision.

The new contractor is FCC Environmental Services. It provided the same service for St. Johns County but it was replaced because of thousands of complaints of poor service.

FCC Environmental began collecting garbage in St. Johns Aug. 1 of this year and was fired three weeks later.

The Clay County Commission had selected JCC Environmental from among three bidders on Dec. 23.

Price was not the only consideration but FCC Environmental was 12 percent lower than the next lowest bidder.

Ironically, Clay officials said they had too many complaints about the previous contractor, Waste Management.

There are 75,000 households in Clay that get garbage collection. They pay the cost on their annual property tax bill.

The new rate will be $34 more than the previous year’s cost of $324.

FCC Environmental made a presentation to the commission Aug. 13 and explained that the problems in St. Johns County were due to new technology and that they believed the problems had been solved.

The new technology includes video that documents every trash pickup.

Clay officials said the first pickup on Oct. 1 took place without any major problems.

Lloyd Brown

Lloyd was born in Jacksonville. Graduated from the University of North Florida. He spent nearly 50 years of his life in the newspaper business …beginning as a copy boy and retiring as editorial page editor for Florida Times Union. He has also been published in a number of national newspapers and magazines, as well as Internet sites. Married with children. Military Vet. Retired. Man of few words but the words are researched well, deeply considered and thoughtfully written.