The new owners of Town & Country Disposal came to the Roeland Park City Council Monday promising that recent problems with yard waste pickup will be solved quickly.
WCA (Waste Corporation of America) bought the Town & Country operation last year and has run into service problems. The company’s William Rose promised Roeland Park that it is “aggressively” hiring new employees. “It is getting better and will stay better,” Rose said of the service.
Roeland Park, Fairway and Westwood entered a joint contract, bid through the Mid-America Regional Council, with Town & Country for trash service starting in 2013. Fairway also issued a notice to residents regarding service problems with Town & Country last month. The problems seem to center on yard waste collections that are not made on time, leaving waste to sit at the curb.
Roeland Park City Administrator Keith Moody said the cities are meeting with MARC this week to discuss the joint contract and the possibility of a new joint bid that would take effect in 2018. MARC does not believe a new bid process can be completed for the 2017 cycle, he said.
WCA is proposing a 2.9 percent increase in the cost of residential service for 2017. That brings the monthly cost to $12.48 per household. Moody said the price increases over the four years of renewals have averaged 1.9 percent. Even with the increase, the price is below the average cost for waste service, he said. The price includes solid waste, yard waste and recycling.
A new contract could be constructed so other cities or HOAs could be added, Moody said, potentially lowering the cost because of the increased volume. Prairie Village has run into service problems with Deffenbaugh since its sale to Waste Management last year and the council this week directed staff to get new proposals.
Roeland Park Councilor Ryan Kellerman said yard waste barrels have been left out over the weekend and asked for assurance that Town & Country can fix the problem. Rose told the council that WCA did not have information about the number of employees at T&C and that random drug testing had not been done before the acquisition. Christmas and Thanksgiving will no longer be pickup days, he said.
Resident John Clements said service had been “wonderful” until a couple of months ago. “We had lousy service for the last few weeks,” he said.
