On Friday, Sept. 13, the Carroll County Board of Supervisors held a special called meeting. The main concern addressed in the meeting was regarding the county’s garbage disposal contract with Arrow Disposal Services Inc. To begin the meeting, Beat 1 Supervisor and Board President Jim Neill addressed the representatives of ADSI who were present in the boardroom.
“We met with Mr. Jimmie with ADSI about a month ago to discuss the garbage problems that we’re having - And like I said the first time y’all have been here like eight or nine years and it’s been like clockwork… And then about six months ago or so, things started changing,” he began addressing the issue.
“And I assure you, we don’t want to be here having to say what we’re saying, but we have got our tails ate up in this county by our constituents,” he lamented.
He explained that beginning roughly six months ago, garbage pickups became delayed and since then the service has been lacking, resulting in much discontent among Carroll County residents. Supervisor Neill explained that in the recent budget, the price charged for sanitation for the county went from $15 per customer to $20 per customer to cover ADSI costs. This has only further exacerbated the discontent of residents who are paying more for lacking service.
“We’ve gotten more work orders and more complaints this year by a lot than we’ve ever gotten in the past,” Supervisor Neill added.
“We work real hard in this county to take care of this county, and this is a hundred percent a garbage problem. Cause we’re paying y’all for service - now they’re asking us about refunds,” he explained.
“Now what I want to do is, I want this thing back in order by Monday, whatever it takes. We need it caught up and next week we need it back in gear or we’re gonna have to look at some other options. Our best avenue is to keep y’all. We want y’all here, cause y’all are already here. You’ve done a great job for eight years - something’s happened. We just need it fixed,” he finished his address.
Next, a representative from ADSI, Jimmie Moore and Director of Operations for the state of Mississippi Charles Lungrin spoke before the Board regarding the issues. Moore addressed first that ADSI has changed ownership and is now owned and operated by Meridian Waste. Next he addressed one of the largest factors affecting the prompt delivery of services, lack of equipment.
“Not your problem, our problem, I understand that. Yesterday we had three trucks, two of them broke down before they got on route. They just came from the shop. We can’t find a shop in this area that is qualified to repair a truck. -We sent people from Meridian. We’re sending people from Meridian tomorrow. - Everything is running today. There may be some misses still on the ground that somehow we didn’t get. By close of business today everything in Carroll County should be off the ground,” moore explained.
The last statement sparked a general grumble in the boardroom as some of the supervisors began speaking at once of their hopes on the matter.
“Again, we’ve got extra people today and tomorrow cleaning up Carroll. Cause when Monday starts, we hope to be back on track,” he stated.
“In Carroll County we run two trucks everyday - that’s what’s on the books. For the past week we’ve run four trucks to try and catch everything up. Two of those went down so we brought two more trucks in, they went down again. So starting Monday we’re gonna have four trucks in Carroll County, Monday through Friday. Make sure all these issues are resolved,” Director of Operations Charles Lungrin took the floor beginning his statement.
“As for those work orders, I haven’t seen any work orders for Carroll County,” Lungrin mentioned.
“I have. Six hundred and seventy two this year,” Courtnee Austin from the Carroll County Sanitation Department spoke up.
Upon being questioned about the process she undertakes to report the complaints, she replied that she sends the complaints to the call center daily. She presented her notes for the past three years to Director Lungrin, explaining which had been opened and closed, as they had been handled directly by Operating Manager Percy Monger, signed and dated, and sent back to her upon completion.
“We went from the first year I was here from four hundred and forty-three work orders to six hundred and twenty-nine. And as of the 11th at nine in the morning we had six hundred and seventy two. I’d say that eighty-five to ninety percent of those are missed,” Austin stated.
“Working with Percy directly when he’s able to tell me when he’s completed stuff - it’s so much easier to relay to the customers what’s going on if I know too. It was a lot easier when I had direct communication with Percy,” Austin explained.
“I never know if there’s a problem until customers start calling me,” Austin expressed her frustration. “I don’t know if he’s letting the office know, but somebody at the office has to be a more efficient point of contact for me.”
After this point in the meeting, each of the supervisors expressed their discontent with the current services provided, all relaying the information received from their constituents in the county. Much later in the meeting, the Board discussed the possibility of requesting a refund from the company due to the lacking service.
“If the company gave - just a blanket across the board - ten dollars back that’d be thirty thousand something dollars. But I don’t know if they’ll go for that or not,” Supervisor Neill proposed.
Following this discussion, the Board went into executive session regarding potential litigation concerning the garbage contract. No action was taken during the executive session.
The full recording of the meeting may be found at The Taxpayer Channel’s website https://www.thetaxpayerschannel.org
In other news the Board:
• Approved to lift the burn ban on Carroll County on a motion made by Supervisor Randy Browning seconded by Supervisor Josh Hurst with all in favor.
• Approved extra poll worker training ahead of the November election.
• Accepted quotes for CR 64 bridge repair in beats 1 and 4. The cost of materials, approximately $33,169, will come out of the bridge fund and the cost of labor, approximately $36,025, will be split between beats 1 and 4.
• Approved the low bid to purchase 2 police vehicles from Cannon Motors.
