The Lafayette County Board of Supervisors continued to review proposed budgets Thursday from various departments and as per usual, the big ticket items centered around equipment.

For the Solid Waste Department, that means a new automated garbage truck and new knuckle boom truck for large debris pickup.

The county recently went with supplying 96-gallon garbage cans to every household in the county. Cans are still being delivered to homes and some have requested an additional can. Currently, the garbage is being picked up in the “old fashioned” way, using front loader trucks until the new automated trucks arrive.

Last year, the Solid Waste Department budgeted one automated truck and one front loader truck; however, those trucks have not come in yet. The automated truck is expected to arrive in October. The automated trucks can pick up the cans and dump them without a person having to jump on and off the back of garbage trucks.

However, this year’s budget includes the purchase of an additional automated truck. The automated trucks cost about $200K each.

The Solid Waste Department’s budget is $2,764,920, which includes $775,169 for two automated trucks, a front-end loader, and a knuckle boom truck. Revenues are expected to be $3,947,580, which includes $1.9 million in roll-over cash from this current year’s budget.

Supervisor Chad McLarty suggested the can number be included on people’s bills so residents can make sure they’re using the right can, especially in duplexes or townhouses where there may be two to four cans in a drive way.

Road crew wants new equipment

The Road Department presented its almost $10 million budget on Thursday as well.

Most of the Road Department’s revenue comes from property taxes and state-aid grants. They project to start off the fiscal year 2018-2019 with $2.6 million in cash rollover from this year and $5.2 million collected from taxes.

New equipment requests included in the budget were five backhoes at $560K; one asphalt paver at $400K; three 3500 Dodge service trucks at $125K; four pickup trucks at $100K; two bush hogs at $140K; a mini excavator at $120K.

Road Manager Joe Bynum said the list was prioritized based on need in the department.

“We’d like to get all five bush hogs at once if possible,” he told the supervisors. “We might get another year out of the paver if we pay to fix it up throughout the year.”

The supervisors will continue to review the proposed budgets and vote on a final budget in September.