In a vote Monday, the Warren County Board of Supervisors approved a new, six-year contract with Waste Management to provide garbage service to residents in the county.

The new contract goes into effect Oct. 1 and continues through Sept. 30, 2025.

In the contract, Waste Management will continue to bill residents $62.46 quarterly in advance for service, with $3.75 of that amount going back to the county as a surcharge.

John Smith, Warren County administrator, said the quarterly payment to the county is only used when a resident’s account is in default, forcing the county to pay Waste Management for the continued pickup.

“The surcharge back to the county goes to pay those bills when a customer’s account is in default,” Smith said. “Nothing else. At that point, we then go to recoup the money spent either through car tag renewals or through a bad debt collection.”

In the same meeting Monday, supervisors approved a loan from the county’s general fund to the garbage fund in the amount of $13,788.14 to cover the amount of current delinquent accounts.

“We just didn’t have enough in the garbage fund to meet that need,” Smith said.

Also in the contract, Waste Management is required to provide written quarterly statements that update current active customers, all delinquent accounts and those customers where Waste Management did not collect any garbage for a period of six consecutive collection dates.

In their last quarterly report, which was as of March 31, Waste Management reported 5,743 active accounts. That number is lower than normal, with the active accounts at homes currently in flooded areas being currently suspended.

As of April 22, the number of delinquent accounts was 977, or 17 percent of active accounts.

The city of Vicksburg also uses Waste Management. The Board of Mayor and Aldermen renewed their contract with Waste Management in June 2017, agreeing to a six-year contract.