North Huntingdon garbage complaints shrink, township officials say

North Huntingdon residents are filing fewer complaints about the township’s new trash hauler failing to pick up their garbage on time, township officials said this week.

The township administrative staff “is not spending nine hours (a day),” fielding phone calls from residents upset that County Hauling of Rostraver failed to collect their trash, Jeff Silka, township manager, said at the commissioners meeting Wednesday. The volume of complaints is now “more manageable,” Silka said.

“We’re very pleased at how it went this week,” Silka said.

Commissioner Zachary Haigis, board chairman, saidthe township was inundated with calls at the beginning of the year.

“I think they are making slow improvement,” Haigis said.

Silka last week urged residents to be patient and give the hauler time to work out the problems of starting operations in the township.

County Hauling changed the routes that former trash collector Waste Management had established, which delayed the garbage collection for some residents.

By February, the complaints should be minimal, mostly a missed trash collection, which happened when Waste Management had the contract, Silka said.

County Hauling, which is owned by Noble Environmental Inc., was awarded a four-year contract last year to collect residential trash. Waste Management’s contract expired Dec. 31.

The company was responding to missed collections last week and was confident the issues will drop dramatically week after week as drivers learn their routes, said Ro Rozier, spokeswoman for Noble Environmental.

County Hauling removed a Dumpster on Wednesday that it had placed at the township public works building in order for residents to drop off their garbage in case they were missed.

One resident who remains upset was Paul Koper of Moss Drive, who told commissioners his trash was not removed Wednesday, his normal collection day.

The last time County Hauling collected his garbage, a driver came at around 9 p.m., Koper said. With late-night collections, Koper said he was worried it could be dangerous to be walking around the truck to dump garbage into the vehicle at night.

The township should do a better job the next time it seeks bids, in evaluating whether a hauler can do the work, Koper said.