Arrow Disposal CEO Richard Urrutia said the company is starting to face familiar issues with garbage collection in Pike County.

Arrow took over the countywide collection contract in April.

Urrutia said for the most part the company had been doing well and had even gotten many of the county’s residents sign up for the service, but now, much like with Advanced Disposal who once serviced the county, Arrow is having issues with non-paying customers. “We put new carts out and we stopped taking up any other cart so they had to sign up or they wouldn’t get a cart,” Urritia said. “That kind of flushed out the people who weren’t paying initially. Now, we’re about to start picking up the carts again.”

Urrutia said many residents initially signed up for fear of not having their garbage collected, but two things are now happening for county customers. Those residents who are up to date with their payments and the current billing cycle will receive a sticker indicating their can will still be picked up on it’s regular date, and those who have not paid their bill will more than likely have their cart repossessed by Arrow. “The customers signed up because they knew they wouldn’t get our blue cart until they did,” Urrutia. “We are going to have to start sending out a sticker if a customer pays. If you don’t pay, we won’t pick up the garbage anymore.”

Urrutia said the company’s quarterly billing cycles allow customers the opportunity to pay three months at a time, which seemed to be working until the billing cycle ran out.

“At the end of June, we will bill for the next quarter, which is July, August and September,” Urrutia said. “We bill by the quarter in advance, so some customers who haven’t paid since the initial sign up will be 60 days past due. That’s two months customers had to pay a bill.”

Once the new billing cycle begins, the company will collect nonpaying customers’ carts and will assess a $50 redelivery fee once customers are up to date with their bills, Urritia said.

Overall, he said, the relationship with county officials has been strong.“We have had a great working relationship with the county,” Urrutia said. “The county wants to get it cleaned up, too. When it started we had really 2,100 people paying, but one in three customers weren’t paying their bills. Since we took over as the solid waste contractor, we are now at over 3,000 (paying) customers, which is good.”