Jurors: Waste collection ‘better’

Tempers flared when discussion finally got around to garbage collection during Tuesday night’s meeting of the Acadia Parish Police Jury.

Practically all members of the jury agreed that collections had improved — and, subsequently, complaints had decreased — during the past couple of weeks.However, when A.J. “Fatty” Broussard recommended hiring a temporary employee whose sole responsibility would be to monitor complaints, the arguments ensued.

Pointing out that the landfill had received only five complaints since Friday (Aug. 8), A.J. “Jay” Credeur said it wouldn’t  be “feasible to waste the taxpayers’ money” with such an employee.

But Broussard was joined by Jury President David Savoy in arguing that, while collections are good now, “we don’t want to get back to where we were a couple of weeks ago.”

Credeur answered that, since Dave Clabo, area marketing manager for Progressive Waste Solutions, the parish solid waste contractor, had been brought into the loop, “things are better.”

“But how long will Mr. Clabo be here? Another four years?” asked Broussard. “Because that’s  how long we’ve got this contract.”

Credeur said, and Clabo acknowledged,  that the marketing manager would be in Acadia Parish “as long as needed.”

Credeur went on to say that, because of a break-down last week, an entire neighborhood in the Church Point area had been missed by a substitute driver. But one call to Clabo and the entire neighborhood was picked up that afternoon.

Broussard then accused Credeur of circumventing the procedure whereby complaints are supposed to be called in to the landfill.

“By calling him directly, we had no record that the houses had been missed,” Broussard said.

“So you’re only objective is to fine the company, right?” Credeur asked, referring to the $250-a-day fine that can be levied for missed pickups.

“My only objective is to make sure they do their job,” Broussard retorted.

Dale Trahan offered a substitute to Broussard’s motion to hire a temp, offering instead to authorize the permit clerk at the landfill to monitor the missed calls and make sure pickups were made when the drivers noted.

“If you want to give him an extra dollar an hour go ahead, but we already have the personnel,” Trahan explained.

Credeur contended that “we addressed the problem and they (Progressive) got it fixed,” but he did not vote against Trahan’s substitute motion.

The motion passed by unanimous voice vote.