Collection agencies vie for Tennessee waste job

Approximately 12 percent of Dickson County, Tennessee, residents who received a $10 solid waste fee with their electric bills have yet to pay it off, the Tennessean reports. The fee, approved by the county commission, has been delivered since July, and the large number of residents who haven't paid forced the county to receive help from collections. Dickson County has received two bids from third-party collection agencies to help find debtors and collect the waste fee. The plan is to use the agency for residents or business owners in the county who can't be found because they have either moved, are unemployed or don't own property in Dickson. The county simply didn't have the time or resources to track down these hard-to-find debtors previously. Last month, county officials sent out around 2,500 delinquency letters. The news source notes in a separate article that another 2,800 were mistakenly sent to residents who had paid the fee by contractor Pinnacle Data Systems, and procedures have been put in place to ensure such issues don't occur again in the future.