NATCHEZ — Adams County leaders said the county’s new garbage collection service provider would begin collecting garbage today to help alleviate a backlog of garbage that has gone uncollected for weeks in some areas of the county.

County Administrator Joe Murray said Metro Services Group, the company that was awarded the county’s garbage collection contract earlier this year, plans start picking up trash today, earlier than the original contract, and would work through the weekend to collect the garbage.

Garbage collection has been spotty throughout the county for weeks after Waste Pro, the county’s outgoing collection firm, said it had lost a number of garbage truck drivers. Many residents report having had uncollected garbage piling up.

Adams County Supervisors held a special meeting Nov. 16 in an attempt to resolve the garbage collection issue.

At the time, supervisors said Waste Pro had lost local employees after they learned Waste Pro’s contract would end Nov. 30 when Metro would take over on Dec. 1. As a remedy, supervisors said at the time Metro would begin its collection a week early which would have been Monday.

Murray declined to comment on why Metro did not start collection on Monday.

“Metro should make their own statement,” Murray said, “but they say they’ll start in earnest (today) to pick up some of the areas they missed. Their contract starts Monday, but they say they will run two trucks (today), which is going to be difficult because they can’t get all the area on one day.”

Murray said some of Metro’s drivers know the routes as former employees with Waste Pro. Murray said the biggest hurdle in getting things back to normal would be collecting the days of missed garbage.

“It may be smooth as silk come Monday,” Murray said. “I don’t want to alarm anyone but I can’t predict what’s going to happen. Metro will be here six years, so they’re going to want to start on the best foot they can. I think it will be really smooth.”

In light of the advancements made Tuesday, Murray said that a special meeting set for today had been canceled.

Murray said Waste Pro would coordinate on the removal of the company’s dumpsters so that Metro could replace them with their own company’s dumpsters.

Waste Pro officials issued an apology Tuesday for the lack of service in Adams County and said they would not be able to complete the terms of the original contract:

“Waste Pro would like to apologize to Adams County and its residents. Due to a lack of available drivers despite our best efforts, we are unable to adequately provide the last week of our contract services. We are working with the county and the new service provider, scheduled to start Monday, December 1, to mitigate this situation,” the email was signed by Chris Lockwood, Waste Pro Divisional vice president.