Morgan City privatizes trash pickup

Progressive Waste Solutions is expected to begin picking up Morgan City residents’ garbage July 13 after the City Council authorized the mayor Tuesday to sign a six-month garbage collection contract.
At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi said the city, which had been using city crews and equipment to pick up residents garbage, hasn’t been able to provide consistent garbage collection service to residents because problems with the city’s garbage trucks, Grizzaffi said.
Additionally, the city’s lead mechanic recently had to take early retirement for medical reasons, the mayor said.
Residents won’t see any increase in their current garbage collection rates with the six-month contract, Grizzaffi said.
Morgan City was one of the few cities in Louisiana that still provided residential garbage pickup, Grizzaffi said.
Four companies are currently bidding for a garbage collection contract with St. Mary Parish government, and by January, Grizzaffi hopes Morgan City will be able to join the parish in that contract, which will be financially beneficial to the city, he said.
“In the meantime, we have to be able to get to January,” Grizzaffi said. The proposed contract will go from July 13 through Dec. 31.
Progressive Waste Solutions provided a “reasonable offer” to pick up the city’s trash at least until January, Grizzaffi said.
The city tried to make city-run garbage work for the past two years since purchasing refurbished trucks, but hasn’t been able to provide the service citizens need, Councilman Louis Tamporello said.
Councilman Barry Dufrene believes the council’s decision two years ago was the right choice at the time but agreed that it’s time to look for another way to ensure timely garbage pickup.
Councilman James Fontenot said the city “will lose less money” in the sanitation department with the Progressive contract over the next six months, but it would with keeping garbage collection city-run. Though Fontenot didn’t think the contract was a great deal, it will at least ensure garbage gets picked up on time, he said.
Councilman Ron Bias said his biggest concern was making sure that none of the city’s sanitation employees would lose their jobs. Bias doesn’t think getting rid of city-run garbage collection is a great idea, but thinks the time has come to maybe try another option, he said.
City Garbage Truck Driver Alex Trahan, who worked for the city nine years, said he came to city planning to retire as a city employee.
Trahan has never turned down city officials’ requests to come into work early if necessary to get the job done, he said.
“Why do we have to lose everything we put in? My retirement and all that,” Trahan said.
Grizzaffi said his priority relating to the city’s garbage truck drivers is that “they don’t miss a check” whether it’s with the city or Progressive.
Trahan would prefer the city find a place for the garbage truck drivers to work as city employees, rather than expect the drivers to go work for Progressive, he said. Trahan plans to stay with Progressive long enough to help with the transition, he said.
Driver Ernie Fabre, who’s worked 13 years for the city, said city officials should maybe try leasing trucks for several years and then get new ones. The refurbished trucks the city has gotten have been “nothing but junk,” Fabre said.
Progressive’s proposal is contingent on hiring and transitioning four current Morgan City employees who are trained how to operate an automated side loader truck.
Bill Frey, district municipal marketing and governmental affairs manager for Progressive Waste Solutions, said the company will bring in “state-of-the-art” automated equipment designed to pick up garbage in Morgan City in a “timely manner” on a Monday and Thursday and Tuesday and Friday schedule.
Trahan was concerned drivers would to work 14-hour days but Frey said that would not happen.
Though Progressive could train new drivers if the company had to, the ideal situation is have Morgan City’s current drivers transition to work for Progressive, Frey said.
“The drivers will be doing as well or better than what they were doing before,” Frey said.
Fabre said the public has a lot to do with the garbage trucks mechanical issues, too. Fabre cited the example someone stuffing a lawnmower, the motor included, inside a garbage can, as how the public has contributed to trucks having issues, he said.
Loupe said, “We cannot continue to limp like we’re limping right now.”
The city either had to buy new trucks or get out of the garbage collection business, Loupe said. New equipment wouldn’t have solved the problem anyway, Loupe said. It just would’ve delayed maintenance issues the city would see with the trucks down the road, he said.
Loupe does recognize that the drivers work extremely hard and will sometimes come in as early as 3 a.m. to make sure a route gets picked up, he said.
Grizzaffi said the proposed long-term contract the city plans to join with St. Mary Parish government will be much more favorable than the short-term, six-month contract.
“This is basically a parachute that Progressive is throwing to us to help us get to that contract,” Grizzaffi said.
Tamporello encouraged residents to make sure they put their garbage out the night before scheduled pickup to ensure Progressive doesn’t miss getting their garbage.
During Tuesday’s meeting, the council also introduced two proposed ordinances relating to curbside pickup and discarded items, which the city will continue to pick up.
Curbside pickup is defined in one of the proposed ordinances as any approved items placed on the curbside outside of normal garbage can service. The proposed ordinance says the city will collect items on the curbside totaling up to 10 feet in diameter and five feet in height. Grizzaffi also may add a five-foot deep limit to the requirement, he said.
If someone has more trash on the curbside, the city will charge probably $50, Grizzaffi said.
Also during the meeting Lee Chapel AME Church in Morgan City was recognized for its 125th anniversary, and the council also held a moment of silence remembering the victims of the shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
In other business, the council:
—approved locations and time of events for the Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival.
—approved a resolution regarding a Community Block Development Grant duplication of benefits policy
—read a proclamation for the 80th anniversary of the Social Security Act.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald of The Daily Review staff. Reach him at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com.