Vicksburg residents will have to wait one more month before getting new garbage cans, Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said Thursday.

“We’re still waiting on the brown cans and we’re also notifying people about the new policy; it will be after the first of October before we distribute the new cans,” he said. “We’ll have to wait and see; I don’t want to distribute the new cans until we have all the cans.”

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Aug. 25 approved a new solid waste collection policy for the city setting new fees and limiting the number of garbage cans residents and businesses can have to hold garbage.

According to the policy, residences and small businesses outside the downtown area will pay a fee of $16.50 per month for twice-weekly garbage collection.

Residential customers can add an additional can for $25.50 per month, meaning a residential customer could pay up to $42 a month for garbage collection. The previous fee was $16.95 per can. Residential cans will be green and have the city logo; the additional garbage cans will be brown.

“If you have limbs and yard debris, just put it on the side and call the Action Line at 601-636-3411. It should be picked up within the week,” Flaggs said.

Small commercial businesses outside the downtown area will use the same cans as residential customers and may request up to three additional cans at $25.50 each per month. Commercial businesses in the downtown area will pay a monthly $40.15 fee for garbage

collection four times a week and can have up to four red cans at $40.15 each per month.

The mayor said the city is notifying residents by including a copy of the policy with their utility bills and including the policy with city employee paychecks. He said the city is also using public service announcements published in The Post and on other media.

Flaggs said the rates set in the policy will remain the same for now, pending an inventory of the number of cans in the city as city officials and Waste Management representatives reach an agreement on billing.

“I think it’s going to work out well,” he said.

“Right now, we’re trying to reconcile between the number of cans we’re billing for and the number of cans they’re collecting,” he said Aug. 25. “Waste Management is saying that they are collecting X-number of cans and we’re saying we’re only billing for X-number of cans. Somewhere, we’ve got to net zero that.”

Presently, he said, one problem the city has is reminding commercial businesses that the city will not collect their yard debris or construction materials.