Municipal utility customers in Whitmire soon will have a new way to kick their trash to the curb.

The Whitmire Town Council was updated Monday night at its regular monthly meeting the city will begin distributing 750 new trash cans to its utility customers in the first part of January 2010. Council members also learned town street and sanitation employee Brandon Hill is currently in training to become certified to drive the new garbage truck the town purchased along with the new trash cans.

If all goes well, Hill will be able to begin picking up trash with the new truck by the beginning of February at the latest once his education is complete.

According to Town Clerk Carla Taylor, the truck cannot be used for route pick ups until after Whitmire has a certified driver. The town has had the new vehicle since sometime in November and it was showcased during the Christmas Parade on Saturday, but that’s the farthest it’s been driven since it arrived.

As for the trash cans, city employees — with the aide of members of the Beta Club and Student Council of the Whitmire schools — have been putting them together over the last several weeks.

Taylor said the new truck holds more than the old vehicle that is being replaced. Therefore, trash collection will go from twice a week on each side of town to just once each week. The truck also will only need to make just one trip each week to the County Transfer Station in Newberry. Before the new trash cans arrived, municipal utilities customers had to purchase their own trash cans to set out.

Whitmire was able to secure a grant of about $126,000 from rural development funds to help pay for the new trash cans and garbage truck. With a town match of about $40,000, the project comes to a grand total of more than $160,000.

In other business, the council:

• Decided to table any action on raising the cost for cemetery lots until further information could be gathered. Council members want to see how other communities handle the issue before making any decisions. The issue was brought up at last month’s meeting. The town pays someone to care for the cemetery property which is quickly running out of room. Gravesite rates have not increased for sometime and facing a possible need for expansion Taylor said increasing the lot rates could provide the additional revenue to purchase more land. Current lot rates are $250 per gravesite for people living within city limits and $500 for those living outside city limits.

• Heard an update from council member Debbie Harris on a proposed skate park for the community. Harris informed the council she and several others have been raising funds for the construction of a park and are looking at other funding sources, such as Tony Hawk grant monies. Taylor said the council has offered to give the land for a park, but at this time will be unable to provide the group with any financial assistance since the budget is extremely tight. She added council members agree the town will assist the group in attempting to secure any grant funding it can.

• Was again approached by members of Cedar Grove A.M.E. Zion Church on S.C. Highway 66 about getting a city waterline to run to their church building. The church had previously inquired about possibly running a line off of an existing one running to the new school building nearby, but the council had not been able to get any final figures as to how much it would cost to install a new line since the church’s previous visit. The group was asked to continue checking with council members and Taylor as to when those final figures will be available.

The next meeting of the Whitmire Town Council will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 11, 2010, at Town Hall in downtown Whitmire.