Debris piles up for days, sometimes weeks at a time along the streets of Indianola.
Plastic bags have become like tumbleweeds here.
Ward 3 Alderman Ruben Woods, for one, is fed up with the littering, and he also wants to know what the city’s public works department and private contractors are doing to stave off the trash.
“We have two sweepers, but for some reason, the streets are not being swept,” Woods told the mayor and board of aldermen this past Monday night.
Woods expressed frustration that the city has invested in a machine to fix potholes, and yet, it does not seem to be in operation. And if the city can’t pour hot mix into a hole and pack it correctly, it can at least run the street sweepers, he said.
Public Works Director Elvis Pernell told the board that the city’s sweepers are old.
“Public works is in a horrible condition when it comes to equipment,” Pernell said in response to Woods’ complaints, adding that one sweeper is completely down. “We haven’t had but one sweeper in six or seven years. The old one hasn’t run in a while. We have one that’s working, and it don’t work every day.”
Pernell said the cost of maintaining the working machine, which by estimate is a little over a decade old, was starting to add up.
The board did not discuss or take action on fixing the current machine nor explore the possibility of replacing it.
Woods turned his attention to Arrow Disposal, the contractor he said is tasked with not only picking up household garbage but also debris and trash left along the streets.
Mayor Ken Featherstone said that there has been a problem with landlords in the city cleaning out the contents of homes and leaving that on the side of the street, something he said is the homeowner’s responsibility, not Arrow’s nor the city’s.
Woods said he hopes citizens will commit to at least picking up the trash in front of their homes.
As for the pothole machine, Pernell said it’s a pretty good machine, but the city has had a difficult time obtaining materials.
There was no clear plan of action to address either the trash or the potholes.
