Nearly forgetting the fact that the Town of Jarratt, Virginia, also has trash pickup for persons on the outskirts of town, we were reminded of such while we were going through old minutes and ordinances.
(We are doing our best to get a copy of every single article from the official town website before someone decides to rip everything from it - or get rid of the website entirely. There have already been two places on the website that they have altered without thought or reason beyond vanity - the first, an RFP from 2018 - the second, a list of persons on planning and zoning, which is currently nonexistent. The current mayor, and a current member of council, are still listed as though they were still citizens.)
At any rate, unless something has changed and it has not been posted online....
There is a form [PDF - if they have taken it off the website, you can also find it here] that states "extended trash pick up" is to be paid quarterly, and lists which roads are capable of being on said pickup route.
The form has not been updated. If you were merely glancing, and you just so happened to live on a certain road, you would automatically believe this form is exactly what you're looking for - but it isn't.
Because we skim through what we have been saving off of the official town website, even though it was discussed on March 8, 2022, to offer the service to persons on Wyatt's Mill Road [PDF] and, in February 2023 [PDF], roughly a year after deciding to offer the service, they decided extended trash pickup was going to be offered, but everyone had to pay for it in six (6) month segments rather than three (3) -- a month later [PDF] the Town no longer picked up trash on Wyatt's Mill Road.
Reviewing old minutes does not always give a full scope of reasons. Some of it may have truly been because of the price of diesel (it was over $4 a gallon in 2023, so we can understand the frustrations) - some of it may have been the distance between the town office and the locations involved with diesel prices included. It may have also been the decision by council to force persons on extended trash pickup to pay for six (6) months of service in advance rather than three (3).
Let's look at that, though - while residents pay for such through taxes, averaging $5 for trash pickup twice a week (we discussed the average price here), apparently extended trash pickup for out-of-town houses is cheaper. By the contract form, the price for trash pickup twice a week was just $4, though paid for in a lump sum of three (3) months originally ($52 quarterly), then changed to payments made every six (6) months ($84 biannually). Regardless, it's just $208 a year, in a warped reflection of the average of $259 in taxes paid per household within the town limits.
Regardless? With the Town of Jarratt, Virginia, having officially declared a once per week trash collection change on their website (April 23, 2025 - and here's a screenshot, just in case they decide to delete it ...like they do with everything else), even the extended trash pickup participants have been shafted with a 100% markup on their bill.
When you look back at both the larger, and smaller, towns that provide the service twice a week (one of which also provides recycling once a week) ...and then you look at the Town of Jarratt, Virginia... where has the town gone wrong? What have the citizens, both in town and just outside of it, done wrong to be slapped in the face like this?
Pulling something from the Town Council Meeting [PDF, pages 1 and 2] held on January 9, 2022, one (1) Pauline Adams (a resident) is reported stating something that might tug appropriately at this juncture:
[She] stated she doesn’t see what [the citizens] are getting for their tax dollars other than streetlights and trash pickup and not everyone has a streetlight. She recommended the idea of converting back to the counties, she understands what it entails but the town doesn’t provide any “necessities” that the county doesn’t already provide [them].
Well said, Mrs. Adams. Well said.
- Jarratt, VA, USA:
For the People.