Historic Church Gets Trash Bill Cut in Half | Business

ATLANTA -- For one of Atlanta's oldest churches, it's been a fight that church members thought they could never win -- getting the City of Atlanta to scale back on billing for services they didn't want, didn't use, and didn't need.

More than three decades ago, Brown Memorial Baptist Church tore down its parsonage and a home next door. Now all that stands is a parking lot.

The property changed its look, but not the bills it kept getting for trash and solid waste pickup from City Hall. The 108-year-old church on Howell Mill Road has been paying top dollar for trash and solid waste services it doesn't even use.

Church member Dennis Robinson says efforts to correct the high billing go way back.

"One of our members has been going to the City and trying got get this problem resolved for 15 years," Robinson said. "The ex-Mayor was even spoken to. She was giving a speech next door and she said she would have something done about it and nothing ever happened. I've called various offices and got shifted from office to office."

Year after year, the high bills kept coming in -- the latest approaching $500.

Robinson contacted the 11Alive Help Desk and we immediately contacted the City's Department of Public Works.

"I called you and you sent me an email within an hour and we set up this meeting and the people from the City called and cut the bill in half," Robinson said.

"We were able to get in touch with our Office of Revenue and they were able to take a look at the solid waste bill and found indeed there were some discrepancies that needed to be corrected," said Valerie Bell-Smith of the Atlanta Department of Public Works.

The solid waste bill for the church has now been cut to less than half of what it was -- a place where it should have been years ago.