A new garbage pickup contract will not mean an immediateincrease for county residents’ rates, officials said Monday.

Despite a new contract that calls for the per-household garbagepickup cost to go up $3.88, the charge that residents pay for oncea week pickup will remain at $9 a month.

“For at least a year, we’re not going to go up,” said CountyAdministrator David Fields. “We’ll see how our money holds out, butright now we’re not going up.”

During Monday’s board meeting, supervisors approved a newcontract with Waste Management for garbage pickup service.

Under the contract, the county’s per-household garbage pickupcost will go from $4.62 a house to $8.50 a house. The primaryreason for the increase is fuel costs, Fields said.

Fields said the contract fee does not include what the countyhas to pay to have garbage disposed.

Since the county switched to Waste Management about 18 monthsago, Fields said the solid waste fund balance has been goingup.

“The fund balance will carry us through at least the next year,”Fields said.

In addition, within the next 90 days, Fields said a new housecount will be conducted jointly by county officials and WasteManagement representatives. By locating homes that may be gettingservice without paying, he indicated that could also help thecounty’s revenue picture regarding solid waste.

“That will allow us to pick up some places we weren’t aware of,”Fields said.

Solid Waste consultant Butch Lambert has been working with cityand county officials regarding a new garbage collection contract.Brookhaven officials were expected to hear a report on the city’sgarbage pickup contract at tonight’s city board meeting.

In other business Monday, Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber ofCommerce Executive Vice President Cliff Brumfield gave supervisorsgood news on the status of the Industrial Park speculative buildingsite that for years has been plagued by dioxin contaminationconcerns.

Following testing last fall, state Department of EnvironmentalQuality and Environmental Protection Agency officials havedetermined the dioxin had dissipated to safe levels and now isalmost “non-existent.” The dioxin had leeched onto the speculativebuilding property from the old Escambia Wood TreatmentFacility.

The determination will allow city and county officials to onceagain market the speculative building for economic development.Brumfield said he hopes to work with fellow community officials onthe best way to pursue that goal.

Brumfield is scheduled to present a similar speculative buildingreport to city officials at tonight’s meeting.

Finally Monday, supervisors approved a $12,238 bid to replacethe roof on the Brookhaven-Lincoln County Civil Defense Building.Supervisors and Director Clifford Galey had considered a number ofbuilding options, including moving the office to a vacant house onthe site of the new LinBrook Business Park, before the boardsettled Monday on its decision for a new roof at the office’scurrent location on East Chippewa Street.