Waynesboro City Commission has Solid Waste Discussion with RaeKar CEO

The Waynesboro City Commission met in regular session on Monday, January 12, 2026, at City Hall in Waynesboro. All commissioners were in attendance, including Mayor Lynn Warren, Vice Mayor Tony Creasy, Commissioner Jeff Howell, Commissioner Chris Bevis, and Commissioner Jeff Davis. Also in attendance were City Manager John Hickman, City Attorney Josh Polk, and City Court Clerk Paige Sanders.

Mayor Warren called the meeting to order, and Commissioner Davis offered the invocation.

Commissioner Howell made a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting, and Commissioner Creasy seconded. The motion carried and the minutes were unanimously approved.

Department reports were first on the agenda. City Manager Hickman distributed monthly investment reports and cash collateral statements for the commissioners’ review. He stated that there was a gain of $467,722 from November 2025 to December 2025 across all departments. There was a gain of $35,120 in the city’s CDs and investments, and an increase of $432,600 in the city’s checking account. City Manager Hickman said that the city is projected to have $15 million in available cash by the end of 2026.

Mr. Hickman then briefed the commission on some of the projects going on at this time. He stated that the new water line installation project on Wayne Street had been completed, and all that is left to do is to cut the old water line and cap it off.

Site preparation is almost complete at the site of the new water tank on Andrew Jackson Drive, including dirt work, grading, etc. Field lines will be dug soon extending from the site of the new tank to Clifton Turnpike. City Manager Hickman reminded the commission that the water tank project will come in at a total cost of $1.2 million, with $600,000 being paid with grant funds and $600,000 paid out of the city’s water and sewer funds.

City Manager Hickman next reminded the commission that Rogers Group had been awarded the bid for this year’s city paving project, which will cost the city $700,000. He said he plans to apply for the next round of CDBG grants, which would pay for next year’s paving.

The Firefighter Equipment Grant is expected to be awarded to the city again this year. It will come in at approximately $86,000 and will be used to outfit the city’s second tanker truck. Hickman said this would hopefully change the city’s ISO rate from 5 to 4, which will help lower homeowner’s property insurance rates in the city.

Hickman said the city has also applied for a Three-Star Grant, which if awarded, will be $261,000 with a $21,000 match from the city. This grant will be used to replace the roof on the former Lincoln Brass Building.

The city manager’s final update was on the Police Department’s new patrol car, a Ford Explorer. The vehicle is presently at the dealership being outfitted and should be ready by February 1st.

The only item of new business on the agenda was the first reading of the Sanitation Rate Increase Ordinance. In October of 2025, the county passed a tipping fee of five cents per pound to be charged to commercial waste haulers who dump at the transfer station in Waynesboro. This tipping fee primarily affects RaeKar, Inc., the company that has contracts with Waynesboro, Collinwood, and Clifton to pick up residential waste. RaeKar indicated that once the tipping fee went into effect, they would be forced to charge the cities more, which would pass the rate increase on to city customers. It was initially thought that Waynesboro city customers’ rate of $9 per month for garbage pickup would double. However, RaeKar CEO Jason Crews recently announced that RaeKar would no longer be dumping waste at the transfer station in Waynesboro. Instead, RaeKar plans to combine municipal volumes with Savannah, Waynesboro, Collinwood, and Clifton, and bypass Wayne County’s transfer station by hauling directly to the landfill in Decatur County, reducing costs. This will result in a slightly reduced cost the cities will be charged by RaeKar from what was initially thought.

The Waynesboro City Sanitation Rate Increase Ordinance states that all persons receiving garbage collection services shall pay the following monthly rates: Residential - $17.24 per month for one garbage can (up from $9 per month), Light Commercial hand pick-up (garbage cans at businesses) - $23.87 per month, Residential and Light Commercial additional cans - $12.83 per month per additional can, and Dumpsters – a $10 surcharge will be added to each dumpster per month.

Vice Mayor Creasy made a motion to approve the first reading of the ordinance. Commissioner Bevis seconded the motion, and it carried unanimously. A public meeting will be held before the next meeting of Waynesboro City Commission, when the second reading of the ordinance will take place.

RaeKar CEO Jason Crews was present at the meeting to discuss and answer any questions from the commission regarding the new solid waste rates. He explained that combining the solid waste from Waynesboro with Collinwood, Clifton, and now Savannah, and hauling it to Decatur County rather than the Wayne County transfer station, would allow RaeKar to lower the new rates quite a bit from what they were initially calculated.

Mr. Crews went on to state that RaeKar would still be losing a substantial amount of money on solid waste from Wayne County. He stated that the new tipping fee imposed by the county is mainly going to hurt city solid waste customers, as they will be seeing quite an increase on their bills for garbage pickup. He said the rates they are charging the cities would have been even higher if RaeKar continued to take solid waste to the facility in Waynesboro.

Mr. Crews went on to say that the new Wayne County tipping fee is higher than any other county he is aware of in the state of Tennessee. He also said that in his opinion, the number of employees at the Wayne County transfer station is too high for what is done there. He also challenged the amount the solid waste department says they make off recycling, saying he did not believe it was even financially feasible for the facility to handle recyclables at all.

Mayor Warren asked if there would be a chance of any rate increases in the near future. Mr. Crews confirmed that the city is in year four of a five-year contract, and he and City Manager Hickman both stated there would definitely be no rate increase within the next two years remaining on the contract.

Mr. Crews said he thought it would be beneficial to the county and more fair to everyone if all Wayne County households were to be charged some type of fee for garbage services, such as paying an extra fee on license plate renewals.

Vice Mayor Davis asked Mr. Crews about the possibility and benefits of installing an incinerator that could be used by several counties. Mr. Crews said that with many landfills getting full and being closed, and no new ones opening, incinerators were becoming more common in West Tennessee.

Both Mr. Crews and City Manager Hickman confirmed that those with larger commercial dumpsters will feel the worst of the rate increase.

As Mr. Crews prepared to leave, City Manager Hickman thanked him for all the ways he and his company contribute to the City of Waynesboro, including but not limited to the annual Independence Day Celebration.

With no further business to come before the commission, the meeting was adjourned.