Brookhaven and Lincoln County officials will soon seek bids on a new garbage collection contract for city and county households.

     Lincoln County Administrator David Fields explained to supervisors during Monday’s meeting that the current garbage pickup expires on Sept. 30. He said the city would handle the advertising for the contract.

     Brookhaven City Clerk Mike Jinks said he isn’t sure what the new rate will be.

     “I would hope it does not go up,” he said. “But it’s been six years since the last contract came in, so it’s hard to say.”

     Currently, Waste Management holds the rights for garbage collection in Lincoln County and Brookhaven. Waste Management’s contract was a three-year deal with a three-year extension added onto it, said Jinks.

     Jinks said he did not think anything would change with collection under a new agreement, except for a possible change involving recycling in the city.

     “To my knowledge nothing will change in the contract,” he said. “The city will get twice a week pickup and the county once a week. We may get an alternative proposal for recycling in the city.”

     Jinks said the city and county bundle their household numbers in order to get a larger count and a better rate.

     District Four Supervisor Eddie Brown asked about the possibility of having a second garbage bin at the District Four barn.

     “Sometimes we have to go pick up trash when they forget someone or miss a street,” he said. “It doesn’t happen often, but when it does it can quickly fill up the bin we have.”

     Fields said that problem would be addressed.

     Also Monday, Jeff Dungan of Dungan Engineering said the bids would be going out within a few weeks for the roof project at King’s Daughters Medical Center.

     The project will be paid for mostly out of a federal grant that the county was able to get.

     Dungan also said he met recently with a panel that included Gov. Phil Bryant.

     One of the topics discussed was the lack of Local System Bridge Project funding for this year. The $20 million that had been allocated in previous years was not approved by the Legislature during their regular session this year.

     “He told us that LSBP money was an important thing to him and he would try to get a special session together to get it approved,” said Dungan.

     According to Dungan, Bryant told the panel he wanted to approve three years of funding for the project that benefits bridges across the state. LSBP money is critical, supervisors say, because bridge maintenance is expensive and they have limited money to spend on it.