Norris budget, trash changes up for vote at Monday meeting
The Norris City Council includes, from left, Loretta Painter, Chuck Nicholson, Will Grinder, Bill Grieve, and Mayor Chris Mitchell. The council’s next meeting will be Monday, June 9, at the Community Building. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
That will be followed by votes on second and final readings on both measures during the council meeting, which begins at 6 p.m.
As the refuse ordinance is written, residential recycling pickup will be discontinued, and regular trash pickup will be changed to curbside service only as of July 1.
The City Council approved the ordinance making these changes on first reading during its regular meeting in May.
During that meeting, on May 12, the council tentatively approved a new refuse contract with its current provider, Waste Collections, Inc., which does not include the back-door trash pickup service that Norris residents have enjoyed for years – not because the city didn’t want it, but because the contractor did not offer it.
On the recycling issue, the council decided to eliminate that service rather than approve a proposal by Waste Collections to move to biweekly pickups, which also would have raised the total residential refuse pickup charge to $24.50 a month from the current $16.
The council picked an alternate contract that eliminates recycling pickups completely, but also reduces the monthly trash collection fee to $15, which is added to the water and sewer bills of all residents.
As for the new budget, which takes effect July 1 for fiscal year 2026, no tax rate will be set on Monday, as that will need to wait until the city gets a certified rate from the state of Tennessee, expected in early July, which takes into account this year’s countywide property reassessment data.
City Manager Adam Ledford suggested that residents will likely pay an adjusted property tax rate of likely no more than 92 cents per $100 evaluation for fiscal year 2026, down from $1.54 this year.
The new amount is designed to hold property taxes to the current year’s levels despite the reassessment, which has raised property value appraisals significantly – in many cases nearly doubling what they were previously.
The City Council on May 12 unanimously approved on first reading a budget that calls for spending $2.797 million during the new fiscal year, against projected general revenues of $2.2 million. The spending plan includes capital expenditures that would be offset by grant money.
That does not include water and sewer operations, which are computed and paid for separately, with revenue coming from utility bill payments.
Full-time city employees would receive “cost-of-living” raises of 3%, and permanent part-time workers would get raises of 4.5%, Ledford said. The difference in the raise percentages is because part-time employees do not receive benefits such as medical insurance and retirement.
For the regular budget, total local tax revenues are projected to be $1.2 million, including $788,000 in real property tax collections and $280,000 in local-option sales taxes, along with other lesser revenue amounts and sources.
Other money for the budget will come from “intergovernmental revenue” of $673,775, $197,860 in charges for administrative services, $6,500 from licenses and permits, $2,680 from fines and penalties, and $148,000 in miscellaneous revenues.
As for trash pickups, although the new contract does not include back-door collection for most residents, there is a narrow exception. Disabled people with a doctor’s note will still be able to get back-door service. That will include people with permanent and temporary disabilities.
Ledford said Monday that Waste Connections will not charge extra fees for the back-door pickups for disabled residents.
Residents also will be required to use new 96-gallon trash cans that will be provided by Waste Collections as part of the contract.
Those plastic containers are specially made so an automated arm on the trash truck can lift them and dump them into the back of the truck without requiring a person to do it. That way, the trash trucks will have only a driver on board, without a helper, which will lower the contractor’s labor costs.
Residents also will be required to move their trash cans back to their houses within 24 hours after the weekly pickup.
Ledford said the automated pickup system is set only to handle the special, larger cans, and Waste Connections will not allow any exceptions to their use.
People who want to recycle plastics, paper and cardboard will need to haul it themselves to the Anderson County Convenience Center on Norris Freeway, just south of Andersonville Highway, Ledford said.
There is no provision for residents to decline the trash service to prevent having to pay for it. It’s automatically included in all residential utility bills, Ledford said.
In other business next Monday, the council will:
• Consider on first reading a new ordinance dealing with junk vehicles in the city.
* Consider also on first reading a new ordinance placing restrictions to what residents can build on city right-of-way around their property.
