DECATUR -- The Decatur City Council met April 14 during its regular session to discuss problems city residents are having with trash removal.
Jason Fitzgerald and Don Cartwright, both NWA operations managers for Deffenbaugh Industries, were on hand in the council chamber to answer questions about their refuse removal in the city of Decatur.
Decatur contracts Deffenbaugh Industries to remove trash for more than 700 city residential dwellings and businesses.
Mayor Charles Linam said that, on several occasions, the city office has received calls in regard to missed trash pickups. He noted that trash service was interrupted due to the severe winter weather the area experienced in December, January and February.
"We've gotten some citizen complaints and not all of them relating to the weather," Linam reported. "I guess that one week they forgot Falling Springs, and there were a lot of houses missed."
Several other areas were also missed within Decatur, including some which were missed three weeks in a row, Linam said.
"Our goal is to pick up everything in the city, no matter what," Fitzgerald said. "Our team is fully staffed to handle any kind of calls that the city might have at our office and we will respond within that day if possible, if we are still in the area, or the next day."
One council member expressed a concern that the trucks are now understaffed, having only a one-man crew instead of a three- or four-man crew.
Fitzgerald explained the one-man system is "the wave of the future." The new model of trash pickup equipment is geared so that one man can either exit the vehicle from the right and dump the trash into the side-mounted trash hopper or use an arm that picks up a specially built trash container, he said.
At present, Deffenbaugh is transitioning from a three-man crew to a one-man system. Finding the right individual that can handle the pressures of this job is a hard one and causes many of the misses.
"How can we get the complaints to your system for resolution?" asked Kim Wilkins, Decatur city clerk.
Deffenbaugh has a customer service web-based system that records the number of misses so that a trend can be seen and corrected. The number to call to report a missed trash pickup is 872-9098.
In other business, the 2013 city and water department Audits were approved by the city council.
The Decatur Police Department answered 98 calls for service for the month of March.
The Decatur Fire Department responded to 10 fire and 18 first responder calls in March.
General News on 04/23/2014