The price Warren County residents might have to pay for a single hauler to pick up their garbage could be made public this week.

Warren County Board of Supervisors President Bill Lauderdale, District 2 Supervisor William Banks and County Administrator John Smith were to meet today with senior Waste Management staff at the Board of Supervisors office to talk the economics of switching county garbage pickup from the current system of corporate and family-run garbage services in favor of a single hauler.

It won’t be a public session, and talking with a potential interested party before the fact won’t guarantee what a formal offer will look like, but the aim during supervisors’ informal chat Monday was clear.

“Three-quarters of our county citizens outside of the city limits use Waste Management anyway,” Lauderdale said. “It could automatically give them a discount, or give them better service.”

Warren County’s current waste ordinance stipulates all non-city residents contract with private firms on their own for garbage pickup. A $1.25 monthly surcharge added to bills funds the county’s costs for enforcing solid waste disposal requirements by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.

Last April, Waste Management’s offer to continue service inside Vicksburg broke down to $11.88 a month for county residents. The company charges about $22 for county residents under the county’s current arrangement. Residential garbage rates were to be $17.50 inside the city this month.

On Friday, hauling service operator Billy Drake turned over just before the close of business a list of customers, officials said. The county board had given Drake three months to do so earlier in the week, else his permit to pick up trash was to be revoked for the third time in 3½ years. Drake’s family has served about 400 homes and businesses in recent years; no total from Friday’s submission was available Monday while the county’s Environmental Office staff checked the list.

About 5,500 people in nonmunicipal Warren County have garbage picked up regularly by three permitted family-run operations and three corporate haulers. Waste Management has the largest clientele, with about 4,100 customers. The other permitted companies are Earth Friends Environmental Services and Waste Pro of Mississippi. Private haulers include Drake, John Hatchett and Oscar Mayfield.

Collecting timely surcharge payments from haulers and making sure proper trucks and equipment are used have been chronic issues for years. Permits were revoked but reinstated whenever haulers ponied up prior debts. However, the prospect of lowering prices in the county have longtime defenders of the system ready to dump it.

“With private haulers and the way they operate, their days are numbered,” District 5 Supervisor Richard George said. “You can’t have individuals traveling the same road, picking up a garbage here, a garbage over there, and then here comes another (hauler) …nobody’s making any money.”

Average fuel prices — a crucial variable in sanitation costs — have risen 16 cents a gallon nationwide in the past year. Diesel prices, which affect packer trucks, are up about 11 cents nationally and 13 cents in Mississippi. Regular gas in Vicksburg varied from $3.73 to $3.86 a gallon this morning, up from about $3.50 a year ago.