The on-again, off-again relationship between the Scott County Commission and Northend Disposal is off again.
Deteriorating service and the lack of a new trash truck which had been promised to the county are only two of the claims which have prompted the commission to threaten the company with breach of contract.
Commissioners made their feelings known to Doug Schaben, the latest in a revolving door of area managers who have represented the company since they took over trash collection services in Scott County several years ago. The county has been receiving more complaints about poor trash service - customers who are missed on collection days or collections that may be 2-3 days behind schedule.
Commissioners attribute part of the problem to the steady stream of new employees who are assigned to Scott County and don’t know the trash routes. The company has been through three or four different managers in as many years, which has compounded the situation.
“It seems that we never see the same face twice,” says County Clerk Pam Faurot.
Commissioners are also disenchanted with broken promises made by the company. They were promised a new trash truck and Northend Disposal even made a point of bringing it by the courthouse for commissioners to see when it arrived.
However, the truck has since been pulled off the Scott City route and sent elsewhere.
Commissioners also noted that a number of residential totes that were damaged in the severe winter ice storm more than three years ago have not been replaced, as promised.
“And we’re not getting new totes when we have new residents move into a home,” said Faurot.
In addition, the county was hoping that by starting a recycling center they could reduce the amount of trash heading for the Finney County landfill by enough to see a reduction in rates. Northend’s area manager at the time wouldn’t agree to a rate reduction, but instead the company asked that the county enter into a new five-year contract and trash rates would be frozen for the first three years, through the end of 2012.
The company has the option of increasing rates in 2013 and 2014 - the final two years of the contract.
In a phone conversation with Schaben during Tuesday’s commission meeting, Commissioner Jack Frick relayed the county’s strong dissatisfaction. He referred to the current trash truck as a “junker” that is too small to handle the amount of trash collected on a typical route.
As a result, the truck sometimes must return to the Finney County landfill because it is full, even though there is more trash to be collected.
“You are in breach of contract,” Frick advised Schaben. “Our county attorney is sending a letter to your company to that effect.”
“They keep promising better service, but everything they do only seems to make it worse,” he said afterwards.
Commissioners have looked into the possibility of having the county provide trash service.
“The problem is that (Northend Disposal) also owns the landfill and you don’t know what kind of rates they will charge, especially if we quit using them,” Frick said.