Pelican Waste Removal General Manager Roddie Matherne has assured St. Martin Parish Government and unincorporated-area customers that cart delivery and collection issues will soon be over.
Under criticism at the July 16 parish council meeting, held at the Public Library here, Matherne apologized to parish officials and customers.
The council chose Pelican’s contract proposal over one submitted by Waste Management in a 6-3 vote on May 7. Councilmen Dean LeBlanc, Byron Fuselier and Daniel Richard cast the dissenting votes.
Cedars had recommended acceptance of the slightly-lower bid from Waste Management, but the majority of council members preferred Pelican, mostly because they were offering a more user-friendly recycling program.
Bids were submitted following a Request for Proposals (RFP) issued by parish government. Along with other changes, the RFP stipulated a switch to direct customer billing. This change was made to address ongoing costs to taxpayers of more than $300,000 annually, caused by flaws in the previous system of billing through the various rural water systems.
The transition from Waste Management to Pelican began to go awry even before the actual July 1 transition date. Waste Management began to remove its carts from customers’ driveways when one or even two collection dates remained on their extended contract. After that, the distribution of Pelican carts was carried out in a haphazard and incomplete manner. The combined problems have left some customers without trash pickup for a month or more.
The transition problems have been the subject of a steady flow of complaints to the central office and council members, according to Parish President Chester Cedars.
“Even last Friday, when Hurricane Barry was less than a day away, nearly all the calls we got were about trash collection problems,” he pointed out.
Cedars added that answering complaint calls and trying to address the issues with both contractors has consumed days of parish employees’ time. “This is not just Pelican’s problem. This reflects badly on all of us,” he said.
Albert “DaDa” Menard took exception to the criticism of Pelican. “I’ve received just two complaints,” he said. “And I think that for us to be sitting here bashing this man is unprofessional.
But other council members and Cedars suggested Menard might feel differently if he was the one being besieged with complaints.
Matherne was apologetic. He said that, while he was not trying to shift blame, Waste Management (WM) had certainly not made the transition any easier. According to him, the company was supposed to provide three drivers who were experienced with the St. Martin Parish routes, but decided not to do so.
Matherne added that the company had also agreed to pick up Pelican containers if their own were not present during the final weeks before the change over. In many cases, he said, they failed to do that. And WM was supposed to supply Pelican with a list of routes and collection days, but did not.
Also, Matherne added, the distribution of the new carts was outsourced to a contractor who approached the task in a disorganized manner.
“But in the end,” Matherne said, “The problem is ours now. I apologize for these issues and I can assure this council and the customers that they will be satisfied with our service within a week or two, when all these problems are sorted out.”
Matherne promised he would attend the council’s Aug. 6 meeting to address any further problems.
