City Council should crack
down on garbage service
What’s going on with Republic Services in Morgantown? In my neighborhood, garbage pickup is on Friday, meaning that our garbage can and the recycling bin are placed out on Thursday night in anticipation of Friday morning. At least that’s how it used to work.
The Friday morning pickup slipped to Friday afternoon. Then, service degenerated to the point that now either garbage or the recycling is picked up on Friday and the other material on Saturday. I haven’t discerned the pattern. The unpredictability means that at least one container is left at curbside for an extra day, in violation of Morgantown city ordinance 523.03(b). It appears that Morgantown City Council, Republic’s contracting entity, is condoning these violations brought about by Republic’s declining service.
Amazingly, Republic Services has become even more slipshod.
On last Friday’s pickup day we received a recorded message that pickup would be a day late. That wasn’t surprising, for part of our pickup is always a day late. Our cans were already out from the night before. The call meant that we’d have a pickup on Saturday instead of Friday.
That was true for the recycling, but pickup of the garbage — the most hazardous component — wasn’t made until Tuesday afternoon. Our Suncrest neighborhood had overfilled cans everywhere — some toppled by wind or animals. A very unsavory sight.
Garbage service is big business. The Republic website says that Republic Services is the second largest waste management (garbage) company in the United States. Why, then, don’t they have enough equipment and personnel to provide an acceptable level of service to Morgantown?
Morgantown is receiving second-rate garbage service, while Republic is allowed to operate on the cheap. City Council needs to crack down.
Dave Ornick
Morgantown
