Nickelson on Garbage Fee: I Think There Will Be a Compromise

Shreveport City Councilman John Nickelson talks with 101.7 / 710 KEEL's Robert J Wright and Erin McCarty about Tuesday's city council meeting, and how that body addressed Mayor Adrian Perkins proposed $18 a month garbage fee.

Nickelson, less than a month into his term, tells KEEL listeners that he thinks the council is headed toward a compromise. "I think that's right," says Nickelson, "I don't think the sanitation fee is going to pass at eighteen dollars per household per month. But i do think that, in the end, there will be support from a majority of the council for some fee."

Nickelson also states his current position after yesterday's lengthy three-and-a-half hour council session. "I'm really concerned that we have a one percent operating reserve in our 2019 budget." He then compares the city's rainy-day fund to Caddo parish, pointing out that the Caddo Commission has a reserve in excess of one hundred fifty one million dollars. "We don't need a reserve of two hundred percent, but we need to do better than one percent."