Pike County Commissioners are attempting to work through various issues with Meridian Waste.

Commission Chairman Chad Copeland said the country contracted with Arrow Disposal in April 2015 for the county’s garbage disposal. Last year, Meridian Waste purchased Arrow Disposal and took over the contract. Copeland said not long before the purchase was complete, problems with routes began to occur with Arrow. He said those problems have continued since Meridian Waste took over the county’s residential routes.

“Meridian promised they would straighten all of the issues with Arrow out,” Copeland said. “They’ll do good for a little while and then they don’t finish routes, skip houses or people go for two weeks with no pickup. There have been constant issues since they started.”

On Monday night, Sesha Dunn spoke as the representative of a group of neighbors that were having issues with dirt roads. Dunn spoke to commissioners about issues with debris and the passibility of dirt roads, but also had questions about garbage pick-up.

“And last but, of course, most importantly, our garbage,” Dunn said. “I know that this has been an ongoing issue, and there again, you know, we need to know who we need to be contacting, something needs to be done, because it’s just, it’s never ending. I mean, it’s every week. They get later and later, or they don’t come at all, or whatever, you know, and we just, we need to know who we need to be contacting. If you want us to keep contacting you, we’re happy to do that. If there’s something else that we need to be doing, we just, we need help, and we would like to know what plans you all have to address these issues.”

Copeland said the commission had been working with Meridian Waste to get the county’s garbage pick-up back on track and Meridian had two representatives at the meeting to answer questions.

Cal Franklin, director of governmental affairs for Meridian, was at the meeting along with new Pike County Supervisor Jeff Sexton. He said Meridian was aware of a range of issues and was taking steps to correct problems. He said Sexton replaced the previous supervisor and was responsible for making sure all routes were run in a timely manner.

Franklin also said Meridian would be installing new iPads and route tracking GPS software in all garbage trucks. He said Meridian was also experiencing a shortage of garbage cans and was working to resolve that issue as well.

In addition, Franklin said customers would be issued refunds if their garbage was not picked up weekly. He said he was aware of instances where customers were billed for services not rendered and that would be corrected in the future.

Franklin said Meridian was committed to righting the ship and getting people’s garbage pick-up back on track.

“Listen, I know we’ve had problems,” Franklin said. “We’re undergoing some changes here and making sure that we take care of it. And I’ve talked to some of you at times. And I’ve taken care of some of the issues. But I think bringing Jeff on board, he’s energetic, he’s young, he can get out there.

“He’ll ride a truck, he’ll drive a truck if he needs to. But with the new iPad system, we can tell where we’ve been, and we can give you a report every month and tell you what’s been missed, how it’s all going. Again, I know we’ve had problems, but from now on, you’ve got our number.”