Seriously? Bay City Charging $200 if Your Trash Can’s Out Too Long

Residents in Bay City are fired up (and rightfully so), and it’s not about potholes, birdges or taxes this time. Nope, it’s trash cans.

Apparently, if you don’t wheel your bin back in before 8 a.m. the morning after pickup, the city can smack you with a $200 fine. Two. Hundred. Bucks. For a trash can. Leave it out too often, and that fine can climb higher. Sounds less like city cleanup and more like city shakedown.

Look, I get it. It’s kind of annoying when your neighbors leave their trash cans out for days. But slapping them with a $200 fine? That’s a bit over the top.

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During the city commission meeting, Commissioner Ben Tenney said his phone’s been blowing up with people fuming about the fines. And really, can you blame them? He even called the $200 price tag “exuberant.”

Here’s the deal: the ordinance says you can’t put your bin out before 4 p.m. the night before pickup, and you’ve gotta have it back in by 8 a.m. the next morning. Eight in the morning. So if you forget, sleep in, or just don’t feel like running outside in your pajamas in the morning…boom. You could get slapped with a nuisance fee.

According to WNEM, Mayor Chris Girard said even he was caught off guard by how aggressive the enforcement has been lately. Tenney wants the recent fines tossed, and the city says they’ll review the whole thing in September. Maybe they’ll lighten up on the fines or give people a little more breathing room.

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Until then, Bay City residents had better get their butts out of bed and make sure those cans are brought in or risk a $200 wake-up call. Or, you know, just bring them in on trash day. It’s really not that tough.