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Sevier County to charge short-term rentals for dumping trash

The Sevier County Commission passed a resolution which will go into effect this fall.

GATLINBURG, Tenn. — The Sevier County Commission passed a resolution to charge companies operating short-term rentals in Sevier County for dumping their trash. In the past, cleaning companies for short-term rentals would dump their trash in county-operated convenience centers. 

In a press release, Sevier County said the increase in short-term rentals caused problems for those convenience centers, causing some to close early while filling up trash compactors. 

 Tyler Basler, the Sevier County Director of Public Affairs and Communications, said the county would set up a new convenience center exclusively for short-term rental properties in the fall. When that opens, the county will stop accepting trash from short-term rentals at the other county-operated convenience centers. 

They'll charge businesses $10-30 per truckload to use the new convenience center, the release said. 

"Guests are going to have to pay for that, and they're not going to like that at all," said Lisa Hawthorne, the owner of a cabin cleaning company in Gatlinburg. "It's going to cost an owner another $60 per clean." 

Hawthorne said most of the cabins she cleans are in Gatlinburg, which would be a 30-minute drive for her crew to the new convenience center. 

"We are on that ticking clock," Hawthorne said. "We only have from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to get them completely cleaned before the guests arrive." 

Steve Ogle has worked at the Gatlinburg convenience center, run by Sevier County, for almost 40 years. He said the influx of short-term rentals has taxed his center and the trash compactor. 

"It used to be most of them would hold anywhere from three to four days, they'd get emptied once a week," Ogle said. "Anymore, it's about every two days."

Hawthorne said she would like for the trash situation in Sevier County to stay the way it's been because tourists fund most of the economy. 

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