THOMASVILLE — Grady County will stop commercial trash pick-up in the fall, officials said.

The board of commissioners agreed at its Tuesday meeting to stop county commercial solid waste collections, effective Oct. 1.

“I think the primary reason is the cost involved,” Vice Chairman Bobby Burns said Thursday. “It continues to go up and doesn’t come close to covering the county’s cost of disposing trash. With the increased tipping fees from the city, the board felt like this was a good opportunity to get out of commercial trash disposal.”

The county has provided the service for approximately 15 years, but has recently discussed discontinuing it.

County Administrator Rusty Moye recommended the cease of commercial solid waste collection and disposal. He said fuel costs is an issue, but wear and tear on county equipment is also a big factor.

“This will save wear and tear on the dumpster trucks because ours are now approaching ages five and six years old,” he said. “The actual dumping of cans and packing the load using hydraulics causes a lot of wear and tear on the system and its parts.”

Moye wrote a letter and had it sent to all 40 sites that utilize the county’s commercial trash pick-up twice a week ($50 a month) to alert them of the change.

The letter also provided a couple of options for commercial waste haulers for their future use.

Moye said he has received some calls from current commercial trash customers who are concerned about the cost of changing carriers.

“I informed them whatever they were going to be charged would probably be less than what we would charge them if we continued the service,” he said. “We would have to raise our fee if we continued it. Ad valorem taxes do pay for the trucks, but there are more public residents than commercial sites.”

Dumpster cans at these sites, Moye said, will be declared surplus and will remain where they are as long as the sites want them and use them for waste.

“If we went up in county rates I don’t know that it would be that much difference in what the county charges to offset their cost as to what a private provider would charge,” Burns said.

Chris Taylor, owner Taylor Waste Services Inc., said he has had some calls about picking up commercial trash from local businesses since the letters went out.

“We have received some calls, but have not had the chance to do rates yet,” he said. “It will probably be a couple of weeks before we get to put rates together. This will include where it is, how much and how often they want it picked up.”

Yancey Maxwell, superintendent of solid waste, said the county is trying to cut back and save money.