The company in charge of picking up trash in Prichard says they’ll stop services unless they’re paid. Republic Services, a division of BFI, claim the city owes them $300, 000.
“There is a serious difference between the actual house count versus what is being shared in terms of the count that’s being provided by the service provider, ” says Mayor Jimmie Gardner.
Mayor Jimmie Garnder saying house count is his main focus in this whole issue. But Russ Knocke with Republic Services says that’s not the core issue.
“And that core issue is lack of payment for services already rendered, ” says Russ Knocke.
Republic Services, the company in charge of trash pickup, says besides one partial payment, they haven’t been paid for the last three months—a total of $300, 000.
“I mean, you’re paying taxes and stuff for different things to be taken care of and you’re not getting services, you know that’s terrible, ” says Warren Kelly.
Republic says they’ll stop picking up trash unless they get that payment by end of business today. If the service stops, residents don’t know what they’ll do.
“Probably start giving us fines if we started piling it up on the side of the road. I guess we’ll either try to burn it or do something, but they’ll probably give us a fine for burning it!” says Kathy Smith.
Republic says Prichard has been late on its payments before, but never this late. I spoke with folks in the neighborhoods who say they hope city officials put a lid on it once and for all.
“If we can’t trust one someone to help us take care of our place, it’s going to a waste, ” says Frank Lofton.
Mayor Gardner stressed that when he came into office, he promised to look over every contract and agreement and make sure the city is paying for exactly what the city is receiving.
Mayor Gardner did not take any questions after conducting a press conference this afternoon, but he did make a payment late today in the amount owed. We still don’t know how they came to be so late on their payments. Still, the mayor is waiting on a true house count and will sit down with Republic Services to discuss numbers and payments.
Source: wkrg.com
Image by Thomas Hoang from Pixabay
