By Faith Callens, For The Tribune
CENTER POINT — Residents here came to the city’s November 4, 2021 council meeting to air their concerns about trash pickup.
Center Point is one of the Alabama cities who use Waste Management for trash collection services.
“We have lived here in Center Point a little over 24 years,” Jerome Womack said. “Up until a while back, we have never had an issue with our trash pickup service. Never, until Waste Management has been taking over, it has been horrible.”
Womack said his family recently received a postcard that said the pickup service dates were changed from Wednesdays to Mondays.
“Trash was out there, Sunday evening, they never came,” Womack said. “We have called customer service and they said our trash cans wasn’t out there to be picked up and we called again, and they said they did pick it up, so I don’t know.”
Womack said he feels the CP Waste Management service has given his family the run-around.
That’s when council member Glenn Williams notified the family of the Waste Management representatives who were in attendance for the meeting.
“The greatest thing you got going for the night, you have Waste Management here”, Williams said.
Mike Mitchell, Waste Management’s public sector representative was on hand to address Waste Management’s services and whether the city of Center Point was receiving the level of service they had contracted, and he responded to the concerns about trash pickup services.
“What we are doing now, is going through a re-route to make things better,” Mitchell said. “Re-routing everything to the Birmingham District and what that does, we will have trucks in closer proximity so we can re-route to do things a lot better … we did send postcards out, different day changes, I will say we probably have stumbled there but that’s something we will recover in one day.”
Margaret Burrow shared the same grievances with trash pickup as the Womacks and said her dates of her trash pick-up times were also changed. Burrow also mentioned that when her trash would finally get picked up, the trash service would leave her other neighbors’ trash behind.
“Today is Thursday and the scheduled date was Monday,” Burrow said. “I’m not sure what the guidelines are for the debris pickup, but we have had a lot of debris where I live. I can look at my kitchen window and look at the blue tarp at the Sun Hill Baptist Church, it just looks deserted over there. I don’t want us to be forgotten but I know it’s something going on around the city and it’s an issue.”
Burrow said she is not sure of why residents are leaving trash and furniture outside their homes, but she said it’s been like that for months.
Burrow said she called the trash service and spoke to a representative about why her or her neighbors’ trash wasn’t being picked up and she was told that if your name isn’t on the list or if you haven’t filed a complaint, it can’t be picked up.
“No one knows to call and complain about their trash getting picked up, I just figured there was a scheduled day for your trash to get picked up,” Burrow said.
Center Point Mayor Bobby Scott said according to the city’s contract with Waste Management, they are supposed to have a brush truck within the city, picking up debris. Scott also said residents shouldn’t have to make an appointment to use it, because it’s a service that should be provided automatically.
“We are not getting that service as you can see with that daily brush pickup, so that’s why waste management is here tonight,” Scott said.
Council member Tiffany Moore wondered whether Center Point was receiving the same level of service that other cities in the metro Birmingham area received from Waste Management.
“It is just really disheartening when you live in a place you really care about, and you walk outside, and you see trash and debris,” Moore said. “This is where we live, it’s like we are forgotten about. I don’t know the difference between how it’s handled in Mountain Brook and how it’s being handled here. I know they were in the news a couple of weeks ago, having the same issues we are having. I just don’t see this kind of thing persistent there and I’m just trying to see why we can’t get the same level of service here.”
Mitchell responded by saying that Center Point is receiving the same level of service as Mountain Brook and that they are trying very hard. Mitchell said due to COVID-19 and the pandemic, they are currently going through a labor shortage.
Residents within the meeting disagreed with Mitchell about the quick recovery of the day changes of the trash pickup but Mitchell said the re-route is a dramatic thing on their part and makes things more efficient and better for the community.
Michael Barber, who is the senior district manager of hauling operations for Waste Management said the planning for the re-route actually went into effect on November 1, 2021.
“Typically, when we do a re-route, there are issues where we miss people or things fall through the cracks,” Barber said. “The reason we do a re-route is to level load our work across the week. So, we don’t have one day where it is very heavy and very light, we make it even across the board. I know that apart of this contract, we will do both pickup for the trash on the same day we do garbage.”
Barber said there is one boom truck in service in Center Point and the company plans to soon another to help handle the volume of the trash.
“I can’t say that will be able to catch up a 100 percent that week, but you will see it will start to alleviate that problem,” he said.
The council planned to give Waste Management two to three months to improve the streets of Center Point before any other further action is taken.
The items approved on the consent agenda were:
- Resolution 2021-45 Appropriation to Center Point Fire District
The council approved resolution 2021-45 for the Center Point Fire District to have funds to complete repairs within the fire department and the administration building.
- Center Point Employees Handbook
The council updated a few of zero-tolerance policies within the CP Employees Handbook.
- Resolution Authorizing the Solicitation of Bids for the Traffic Enforcement Program
- The city’s contract with Reflex expired at the beginning of October. The City’s use for Reflex was for the city’s traffic light cameras. The council is now getting bids ready to send out to different companies.
The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 18, 2021.