NATCHEZ, Miss. – Adams County supervisors are seeking a new company to pick up residents’ trash as the current garbage collector’s spotty service comes while it declares bankruptcy.
Metro Service Group has asked a bankruptcy judge to let it terminate the contract with Adams County for curbside trash pickup service. The New Orleans-based company has been hauling off trash for about 5,500 county households outside Natchez since December 2018.
However, some county residents’ trash has recently gone uncollected as Metro has failed to fulfill its contracted twice-a-week service, according to county supervisors.
“I’m sure everybody got calls about the garbage. It’s been pretty bad,” Supervisor Kevin Wilson said Tuesday as the county board met.
After closing the public out of discussions about Metro’s bankruptcy and its crippled trash-collection service, the Board of Supervisors emerged to vote for seeking proposals from companies interested in taking Metro’s place.
Adams County residents pay $15 a month per household for having their garbage collected twice a week. Natchez residents pay $22.17 a month per household for three-times-a-week trash collection (one for recyclables) by Arrow Disposal Service.
While the county board is seeking a new garbage collector, Metro will be obligated to fulfill service until a bankruptcy judge lets the company sever its contract with Adams County, said board attorney Scott Slover. It could take a month or more for the board to receive proposals from prospective trash collectors and finalize a contract on how much the winning bidder will charge.
In the meantime, Adams County residents whose trash goes uncollected can report this by telephoning the county sanitation department: 601 445-7903.
Metro – which also serves other communities in Louisiana and Mississippi – has been plagued the past couple of years by staff shortages, broken equipment, pickup delays and other troubles, according to various reports. It lost its contract with New Orleans after trash piled up on the streets in the wake of Hurricane Ida in 2021.
Comments