Misplaced $300,000 trash bill paid

(9/20) At its September 14 meeting, the Walkersville Town Council approved paying an overlooked trash dumping service bill totaling nearly $300,000.

Starting in October 2020, J&J Trash Service, the town’s trash collection company, only billed the contract monthly collection service rate, but failed to bill the town the actual disposal fees collected at the county dump site – which amounted to $296,327 over the 21 months the error went uncorrected according to Town Manager Sean Williams. Since the error was discovered, in June of this year, the company has billed the town correctly

Upon speaking with J&J representatives, it was found Walkersville is the only municipality in the area that does not pay the dump directly for the disposal fees, Williams said.

All other municipalities are set up to pay the Frederick County Division of Solid Waste and Recycling directly. When the trash service arrives at the dumpsite, the trash is weighed, and the town is sent an invoice directly through Frederick County.

Williams surmised that because Walkersville is the oddball out, J&J received copies of all the separate dumping invoices from the county, but never passed them along to the town to be paid.

It has evidently been Walkersville’s decision to pay the dumping fee differently, as listed in the contract with J&J, according to Williams. However going forward, Williams recommended it would be easier for if the county billed Walkersville directly for dump disposal costs like other municipalities instead of going through J&J.

In the long run, this process might lead to Walkersville spending less in disposal costs if the town worked directly with the county and did not have it filter through J and J as was done previously, Williams said. "While this is going to be a very bitter pill to swallow now, in the long run I think we’re actually going to save a little bit of money. "

J&J representatives were also supportive of the billing change as well.

The council voted 3 to 1 to pay the nearly $300,000 bill with Commissioner Mary Ann Brodie-Ennis staunchly voting no. Brodie-Ennis stated she was in favor of the town paying a portion of the presented bill’s hefty sum, but said it was ultimately the company’s responsibility to keep track of their billings.

On a side note, since gas prices have gone down, J&J’s surcharge fee for fuel also looks to return to as it was previously by the first quarter of this calendar year, Williams noted.