Last Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009, was my garbage pick-up day. Falling the day after a national holiday I wasn’t positive that we would have service on that day. When I returned home from a hard night of work that morning I didn’t feel the need to immediately move my garbage can to the end of my driveway.

Around 2 o’clock that afternoon, I was awakened to the rumbling of the garbage truck coming down the street. As I clumsily searched for my shoes in order to make it outside to get the can to the street before the truck had passed, I realized how full my can was.

The previous weekend’s beautiful weather had made it necessary to finally fulfill an obligation that I had made several months earlier to clean out the shed which made my normally half filled garbage can, filled to its capacity. This meant that my can had to be emptied or my garbage would begin to pile up.

I reached the end of the drive way just as the truck was dumping the cans to the house immediately across the street from mine. The front of the truck was just passed my driveway but the back of the truck had not yet passed. The driver of the truck saw me and I thought acknowledged that, yes, I had made it in the nick of time. I turned around and walked into the house only to look out a few minutes later to notice that my garbage can had not been emptied.

I believe that my garbage, and I, was intentionally snubbed. I sent an e-mail to the company that is contracted to provide our sanitation service, explaining my plight, but as of my deadline there has been no reply.

Southern Indiana Waste Systems (SIWS) has the contract for picking up garbage for the residents of the City of New Albany. Their contract was negotiated by the Garner administration in order to keep the cost of garbage pick up down. At the time it is said that the residents were looking at a $7 increase and the contract avoided that increase. It also took the duties out of the hands of city employees. Did this contract do anything to improve the service that is provided?

The City Council just recently passed a $2 rate increase bringing the amount that each household pays for garbage pick-up to $15.75. The increase was necessary to keep in line the amount that is collected to how much is paid to SIWS and to avoid subsidizing another utility with EDIT funds.

In the last several months there have been a number of questions brought up about the service that SIWS provides. There have been some questions about the way they handle the garbage cans and causing the lids to break off. There have people that noticed that sometimes when they are dumping the garbage that some sludge will fall to the ground. New Albany citizen Richard Berryman speaking before the city council on Aug. 20, 2009, complained that this had happened to him. When he notified the company they informed him that he would have to clean up the mess himself. It was brought up that the missing lids and the sludge dropping to the ground might be connected due to rain water filling up garbage cans. This is going to cost the city more money to replace the lids.

It was also brought to the attention of the council that some kind of fluid is leaking from the SWIS trucks. It is speculated that this is hydraulic fluid. I believe that this is cause for alarm because of the environmental issues that it creates. It has also been pointed out that it may have a negative effect on our recently paved streets.

The contract that was negotiated with SIWS is not complete. There are services that probably should have been included that weren’t, probably to keep the cost down. This forced the city’s street department to pick up the slack and spend a considerable amount of their time picking up trash and debris. This has caused problems with them getting the work that they are responsible for done. With last fall’s wind storm and winter’s ice storm and all of the flood damage from this year’s rain there has been a backlog of trash in our neighborhoods. SIWS has stepped up and increased what they are willing to pick up without extra charge, but is it enough.

Other companies have expressed interest in providing the sanitation services for the city when the SIWS contract expires. They have said that they will pick up everything for the same cost that SIWS. Maybe it is time for the administration to look in to replacing SIWS for someone that will be accountable to the citizens that they are contracted to provide service for.

Matthew Nash is hoping that by the time this story is printed his overflowing garbage can has been emptied. He can be reached at dmatthewnash@ gmail.com