Waste Management is collecting garbage from fewer customers in Vicksburg than it specified in its contract, according to an ongoing assessment of the city’s garbage contract and an inventory of city-issued garbage cans.

The exact number of customers the garbage company should be serving was not available, pending the completion of an inventory and the assessment. Mayor George Flaggs Jr. would not say if the lower number of customers would result in reduced city garbage fees.

According to its contract, city officials said, Waste Management claimed it was serving 8,200 customers but Flaggs said the assessment indicated that some of those customers were homes on streets in Warren County, outside Vicksburg city limits.

So far, the assessment identified six streets in the county that were served by Waste Management: Abraham and Boykin drives off Paxton Road; Pear Orchard off Old U.S. 80; Haley’s Point Road off Interstate 20 Service Road and St. Patrick Street and Los Colinas Drive off Berryman Road.

“We’ve been charged (for collections in those areas) according to the first two bills, according to (city finance director) Doug (Whittington),” he said. “That’s the reason reconciling (the service) was so important.”

Also, Flaggs said, Waste Management was collecting garbage from Waltersville Estates, which is under the Vicksburg Housing Authority. He said the cans in Waltersville have been removed and replaced with a dumpster for residents.

Collections in the county areas may have been caused by boundary confusion on Waste Management’s part, the mayor said. Flaggs said he can’t fully assess the city’s garbage collection contract until all the information on Waste Management’s collections is compiled. And part of that involves the results of the city’s garbage can inventory.

“We had residents that had more than one can,” he said. “Some of them had two and three cans and Waste Management was collecting them; they saw cans, they picked them up.”

City officials hope a strategy of using color-coded cans will eliminate the problem.

Under the program, all residential customers will be issued a single green can. If more than one can is needed, an additional brown garbage can will be supplied to residences. Flaggs said the city received 16 requests for brown cans as of Thursday.

Small businesses located outside of the downtown area will also receive a single green garbage can and up to three additional brown garbage cans if needed.

In the downtown area, business owners are eligible to receive up to four red garbage containers.

According to the city’s policy, all garbage and trash must be in a city-issued container. Anything in a container that is not in a city-issued container will not be collected.

“What I’m trying to do is get everything in a composite and then make a determination of what we ought to be paying for and what we shouldn’t be paying for and then assess what we ought to be paying for the service we provide,” Flaggs said.