VIDALIA — Concordia Parish Police Jurors told a WastePro representative last week more residences than normal are being missed lately on the garbage routes.

Jurors Jimmy Jernigan and Red Tiffee said Wildsville, Deer Park and Acme have been particular concerns.

“They missed half of them the other day in Acme,” Tiffee said.

“I know the road I live on out in Wildsville, they missed one man’s house two times in a row, but they picked up the trash from the lady who lives across the street” Jernigan said. “In fact, I picked it up for him and carried it to the Dumpster.”

Jernigan said between the courthouse and all calls made to jurors, six to nine complaints are being made weekly.

“Some days you might not get any, but others you’ll get two or three,” he said. “(Secretary/Treasurer) Kevin (Friloux) said a man called yesterday who sat and watched the truck drive right on by his home.”

Jurors Joe Parker Jr. and Jerry Beatty also said concerns had been raised about what to do with the complaints once they get them.

“I got the runaround until I got to you,” Beatty said to WastePro’s Doug Atkins. “Then it started to get ironed out.”

Atkins, the company’s municipal marketer, said WastePro has been in the parish approximately six months, and that he’s looking to form a solid relationship with the community and solve the route issues.

“We will take any complaints and concerns — we take them very seriously,” he said. “We want to drill down to exactly the homes, roads and streets that we have been missing.”

Atkins said WastePro has been making a number of new hires with the growth the company has been experiencing recently.

“While this is a good problem to have, training them up does take a little time,” he said. “But we want to get this ironed out. Our job is to not have you getting phone calls from the customers.”

Atkins also said he would check on where the disconnect in communication is happening at the company’s dispatch office.

“We will have it all ironed out going forward,” he said. “We are looking forward to the future with Concordia Parish.”

WastePro bought Delta Disposal and took over the parish’s contract. Friloux said the annual fee is $482,200, and the contract runs until 2018.

Friloux said if you have a concern with pickup you can call him at 318-336-7151. Atkins said to call the WastePro dispatch office and ask for Stacy Jefferson at 601-361-9967.

“I’ve worked in government since 1975, and you are going to have problems, particularly with garbage collection,” Friloux said. “There are a lot of reasons for it — it’s in the nature of the beast.

“I think they are serious about getting this fixed, and we’ll get it worked out.”