Officials in one Eastern Kentucky county say millions of dollars are in the trash and the money will stay there until people in the county pay for a service they've already received.

Letcher County officials say some people are not paying for their garbage pick-up and it's time to pay up, or go to court.

It's not the most glamorous job but somebody's got to do it. Johnny Williams is the Sanitation Coordinator for Letcher County. He says his crew picks up the garbage of every county resident daily, even though some are not paying their bills.

"This is the only place that I know of, whether they pay for it or not, we try our best to pick it up," Williams said.

Letcher County Judge Executive Jim Ward says they have more than a thousand unpaid bills but they are offering an incentive to encourage people to pay.

"We'll take their penalties and interest off through April 1st," Ward said.

But when the new month rolls around, officials will roll out letters to those that still have not paid.

"We voted to take 25 at a time to court and we're going to start with the biggest bills and some of them are residents, some of them are businesses," Ward said.

Ward says the largest unpaid trash bill is for $14,000 dollars and the total due to the county is more than four million dollars. Officials say maintenance costs and gas costs make their financial situation worse and they say they need new trucks.

"We need to replace the equipment we got but we can't replace it if we don't have the money," Williams said.

Ward says trash pickup is mandatory to keep people from throwing their garbage where it doesn't belong.

The judge executive says they can workout payment plans for people that come in before April 1st to pay their past-due garbage pickup fees.

Another way Letcher County officials are trying to clean up the county is by offering free tire drop-off. Tires can be dropped in Isom at the Old Southeast Tipple and at the Gateway Industrial Park in Jenkins.

The program runs April 3rd through April 5th.