TIFTON — City manager Pete Pyrzenski brought up the city’s agreement with Golden Environmental at the July 3 workshop.

According to Pyrzenski, there have been multiple complaints about the garbage pick up service that have not been addressed. Some of the complaints are about commercial dumpsters, lawn debris pickup, collection times, residential pickup and updating the recycling system.

According to Pyrzenski, the amount of complaints about trash pick up is very high. He said that if there was someone mid-level that could be hands on with addressing complaints, there might be more action on it.

Pyrzenski said that he had been hesitant to give a set date for the issues to be corrected, but he feels there does need to be something done to incentivize the company to take action.

Council members Jack Folk, Wes Ehlers and Johnny Terrell weighed in, voicing complaints they had either personally seen or that had been brought to their attention by constituents.

Mayor Julie Smith asked Terrell and council member Frank Sayles to work with Pyrzenski to come up with a solution. They agreed that they want to sit down with the owner of Golden Environmental, Richard Golden, this week.

Golden Environmental has been contracted with the city since 2014.

Pyrzenski also updated the council about repaving 20th Street.

He said the sidewalks are being finished and that paving equipment should be on site by Wednesday.

“We should see a lot of activity in the next couple of weeks,” he said, adding that the overall goal is to be done by the time school starts back and that once paving starts it should only take them two or three weeks to finish.

Finance director Wayne Putnal presented a resolution approving the 2017 tax digest and millage rate to the council.

The tax digest is set at $340,527,255, making the rollback 9.731 mils, a decrease of .028 from what it was in 2016. In total taxes, the difference is less than $10,000 from what it was before.

He said that by doing that, the city falls in line with the state regulations and the change will not count as a tax increase and will not affect the budget.

Pyrzenski discussed amending FY2018 budget and wants to have one more finance department meeting before the final approval now that the millage rate is known.

A resolution authorizing an amendment to the city’s agreement with ESG Operations was put before the council.

The amendment authorizes a price change. ESG is asking for a three percent change in pricing for water and another three percent for sewer, totaling an increase of $177,288 for this year.

Downtown Development Authority director Lequrica Gaskins updated the council about the ongoing streetscape project and presented a proposal to add street parking on Chesnutt Avenue at Tift Avenue.

They want to continue the design that they made for Brumby Way across the street where there is currently development.

Gaskins also said that the DDA is looking at other places for parking and are wanting to do a walkability study for downtown.

Pyrzenski said that parking has long been an issue downtown and that this would good project for SPLOST funds.

While Smith was positive, saying that development fosters more development, Vice Mayor Wes Ehlers voiced concerns for the property owner, specifically concerns about imminent domain.

Tifton Police Chief Buddy Dowdy presented a proposal to purchase two new vehicles for the Tifton Police Department.

The new cars are being offered for $20,000, and will not be going through the bid process because the vehicles are “first come, first served” according to Dowdy.

He said that this would replace two older administrative cars that would be surplussed and turned over to other departments.

Tifton Fire Chief Bobby Bennett brought up renting out the city’s southside fire station to a fire engine maintenance company.

Bennett said that the company is very interested in renting it and that he is all in favor of the proposal.

He said that having the advantage of a fire truck mechanic in the city would be good for the TFD, and that having people using the building will help with the longevity of the building.

Wilmot introduced an ordinance regulating parking or storing trucks, trailers and inoperable vehicles in residential districts.

Wilmot said that it is a safety issue as well as of aesthetic concern but that crafting an ordinance that solves the problem without penalizing residents who park smaller trailers at their homes.

Most of the ordinances that are already on the books in other municipalities deal with weights of vehicles, but Dowdy said it would be difficult to tell what the weight would be just by looking.

The current ordinance prohibits semis from traveling through the city except for on designated truck routes and they cannot be parked unless they are making a delivery and can’t park overnight.

Environmental Management director Houston Shultz said that there have been a number of complaints about large trailers and semis in residential areas but it is not a rampant problem.

Pyrzenski reviewed the city’s services agreement with Tift County Tax Commissioner Chad Alexander.

Currently, the contract automatically renews every year. This year, Alexander changed it to renew every three years.

Pyrzenski and city attorney Rob Wilmot said they wanted to discuss that change with Alexander before making any decision.

Pyrzenski presented a national stockpile memoranda of agreement with the Tift County Health Department for the council’s consideration.

The national stockpile is a national repository of antibiotics, vaccines and other medical supplies that will be given out to local health authorities in the event of a national emergency. He said it was an administrative agreement to have on file.

Smith proposed creating a committee to determine which SPLOST projects would be best for the community when submitting projects to the county for the SPLOST VI allocation.

Pyrzenski recommended the city add property acquisition and/or demolition to the areas where SPLOST money is spent.

Becky Moore, executive assistant to the mayor and city manager, presented a resolution providing for the 2017 general election.

Qualifying will begin August 21 with a $207 qualifying fee and will end on August 25 at 4:30 p.m.

Districts 1 and 3 are up for reelection this year, and voting will be on November 7.

Moore also presented a resolution approving an alcohol license for Gravity Pinthouse, which will be located at 363 Commerce Way.

Smith thanked the Outreach and Marketing Group for their hard work with the Great Race and Rock the Block.

“We continue to get glowing reports from all the visitors that came through town for that,” she said. “It must have been 800,000 degrees out there on that asphalt that day, but we had a good time and they had a good time and Tifton really made a big impression on our guests and I wanted to thank everyone for that.”

Lieutenant Steve Hyman with the TPD introduced three new officers: Sommer Jordan, Sydney Saylor and Michael Golden.

Jordan has been on the job for eight weeks and is in the field training officer program.

Saylor had previously been working at the department as the detective secretary and graduated from GPSTC in June.

Monday was Golden’s first day on the job.