TIFTON — The City of Tifton is considering tighter regulations on abandoned shopping carts.

City council members discussed the need for policies to rein in the number of stray shopping carts left around the community during both their May 6 and 20 meetings.

City manager Emily Beeman reported May 6 that she had been working with the city code enforcement department to collect abandoned carts around the city but was running into problems with some of the carts being left on private property, which the department had no jurisdiction in removing.

The ordinance, she proposed, would establish a system for ensuring abandoned carts were retrieved and better prevent cart theft and abandonment in the future.

Beeman explained that the resolution would mandate that all retailers in city limits and with more than ten shopping carts would have 90 days to provide the city with a point of contact, responsible for receiving reports of the retailer’s carts being abandoned in the city, and establish a plan of action for how to better maintain and keep their carts on site.

Inability to submit a plan within the allotted time frame would result in a fee of up to $1,000, and new developments larger than 5,000 spare feet or possessing ten or more carts would be required to submit a plan before their building could be approved for business, Beeman stated.

Retailers would also be required to retrieve any of their abandoned carts within 24 hours of the report or face a $75 fine for each cart that the city will need to pick up and dispose of.

Mayor Julie Smith was uncertain how the policy would apply to retailers outside the city limits, such as Aldi or Walmart, but city attorney Rob Wilmot said this policy would have no jurisdiction in that case, but that an existing state statute effectively covers the same issue.

City council was prepared to vote on the item at their following meeting, but councilman Michael Franks expressed dissatisfaction with the layout of the policy, finding it strange that the retailers would be required to pay a fine for the abandoned carts given that they were also being infringed upon.

He suggested that the carts be declared city property after enough time had passed, which they could then surplus and sell, but Beeman refuted that the city had no means of realistically storing the carts for such a plan.

Vice-mayor Josh Reynolds was also concerned with the policy’s structure, and proposed a suspension of a vote, which Franks agreed with through a motion for a 30-day tabling.

The remaining council members agreed, electing to discuss the ordinance and alternative solutions for the abandoned cart situation throughout June.