Comer council meets in travel museum

The council heard a report from AAA Sanitation on ways to improve their garbage service. The city has 500 garbage customers. Only a few of them have regulation garbage bins that can be rolled to the curbside. These bins have tightly fitting tops that keep out rain and animals, and can be empted by the lifts on the trucks.

Many more use 55 gallon drums, which have to be manually emptied and often are filled with rainwater. The company and city will work together to develop incentives to encourage more customers to use the regulation bins. Another incentive program will be designed to encourage recycling.

In a work session before the regular meeting, the council heard a sales pitch for a “Blue Frog” Aeration system. The company claims the system will outperform current systems at a lower cost. Only one system is currently operating in Georgia at Royston.

The city’s treatment pond is nearing its capacity and is at risk of exceeding pollution levels allowed by the Environmental Protection Division (EPD). The city must decide on an expanded water treatment program in the near future. To improve the current system of aerators and buffer curtains will cost approximately $30,000 to $35,000. The proposed Blue Frog system will cost $61,000 and comes with a five-year guarantee. For more information on the Blue Frog system go to www.bluefrogsystem.com

The council will continue to study the proposals and make a decision at a later date.

In other actions, the council was told that a straw vote on Sunday alcohol sales was not permitted. They decided to change the ballot initiative to a binding vote. They voted to keep the tax rate at 4.4 for 2012. The city will host a Chamber of Commerce breakfast July 21 at 7:30 a.m. in the new museum.

The Comer Police Department made five arrests in June. They wrote 42 citations, filed 19 incident reports, investigated two accidents and answered 230 calls for services.