The trash isn’t going to dump itself.
During a City of Indianola special called meeting last Thursday, Fire Chief Orlando Battle asked the board why the trash contractor, Arrow Disposal Services Inc. has not been picking up limbs as frequently as their contract calls for.
They are apparently supposed to pick up yard waste, which includes limbs and other household items, on Mondays.
Mayor Ken Featherstone said, “They are having the same issues we are having at public works with their equipment. Their truck is down, their truck is in the shop more than it is out on the street working just like ours. So that may be able to explain some of that.”
Battle asked Featherstone if he and the board could ask for retro-pay from ADSI, because it is a part of the city and the company’s contract to pick up limbs.
The city has been plagued for months with yard waste piled on curbs in front of homes. The city has been unable to pick up the waste due to its boom truck being disabled, and Arrow apparently has told the mayor the same about that company’s equipment.
The only difference is that Arrow is contractually obligated to pick up yard waste.
In section 1.02 of the contract, “Bulky Waste” is defined as “Stoves, refrigerators, water tanks, washing machines, furniture and other similar discarded items…These items must be no heavier than what two employees can reasonably handle in placement with the collection vehicle.”
Further, in section 3.01, it states, “The Contractor shall provide curbside collection service for the collection of Residential Refuse, plus Yard Waste and Bulky Waste at each Residential Unit one (1) time per week.”
Indianola Ward 1 Alderman Gary Fratesi said, “If the garbage company is in breach of contract we need to write them a letter. They charge us every month. They have a contract they have to uphold, and we need to write them a letter and explain they are in breach of contract and that their trucks are supposed to be kept new.”
Economic Development Manager and former mayor Steve Rosenthal said, “You have to follow the process, and complaining about it doesn’t start the process. You have to send them a letter and they have X amount of days to correct it. If they do not correct it then they have to pay $100, $200, $300 a day penalty for certain items. It will list them by the things if they miss cans or if they don’t pick up trash. It has a really strong penalty clause, because before we hired this group, we could not take action to the previous supplier, because we didn’t have a contract that gave us those rights. So, this contract has it very clearly described on how we do it. If you pull that contract you will see what you need to do and start that process. Because they aren’t picking up and we made sure that the penalties were pretty substantial by the day and get higher as the days increase.”
Fratesi asked Rosenthal if he remembered how often ADSI was supposed to get new trucks, and Rosenthal told him he didn’t remember that specifically, but he believes they were required to get new trucks when the contract began.
No board action was required.
