Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NATCHEZ — Jimmie M. Woods Sr., CEO of United Infrastructure Services of Louisiana LLC, the county’s garbage collection vendor, said new equipment added last month has led to fewer missed garbage pickups and complaints.

At least two of the Adams County supervisors who attended a special meeting Tuesday morning to discuss garbage collection issues were skeptical of Woods’ claims. They informed him about problems that need to be addressed to make county residents happy with their garbage collection service.

However, residents’ greatest complaint — the more than doubled cost of garbage collection, from $15 to $35 per month — may not be addressed until the current garbage contract with United Infrastructure ends in five years.

District 1 Supervisor Wes Middleton bluntly enumerated the problems his constituents have looked to him to fix.

“I did not vote in favor of this garbage contract. That is no secret. I think it’s probably the worst contract ever in the state of Mississippi. Probably in surrounding states as well,” Middleton said.

“And it was not the lowest bidder. The other option, Arrow, included a container. I believe their bid was only 30 cents a day different than your bid,” responding to a comment from District 4 Supervisor Ricky Gray about United Infrastructure being the lowest bidder on the contract. “It’s not apples to apples. And it’s not the lowest.”

Middleton said he is tired of the constant garbage complaints he receives.

“Your fleet is not up to par. I constantly get complaints about missed garbage to the point that I am sick of it,” he said. “It’s my position on this board to represent the taxpayers of Adams County and that’s what I’m doing. They are not happy with the service. I’m not happy with the service. I’m not happy with the fact that it took four months to have this meeting once the letter was sent out to you.

“We meet on the first and third Monday of every month. As a vendor to Adams County, the taxpayers of Adams County are your customers. I’ve been doing business for a long time. You don’t take care of your customers, you don’t have any business. I feel it’s your responsibility and your company’s responsibility to meet before this board on a scheduled board meeting day so we could have everybody here, so we could have evidence on video, so people could come down and watch it. I don’t like how that was handled,” Middleton said.

He also said United Infrastructure employees do not wear uniforms, which the contract calls for.

“It is a constant that I get calls from people telling me they are getting (garbage) picked up only once a week. I stand firm that this county could get by with once a week pick up. It happens all over this state. But I stood by myself on that,” he said. “That’s where I stand. I’m not happy. Taxpayers are not happy. We will continue to fight this until United Infrastructure holds up their end of the deal.”

Because of turnover, Woods said his company opted for employees to wear vests rather than full-blown uniforms.

“In our mind, providing the vest is clear enough to identify who they work for,” he said.

“As it relates to the fleet, in the last 30 days, we’ve brought in three additional trucks. You and the county should have seen an increase in the level of service since that time. Each is 2018 and above. We have addressed the fleet. I think some of the conversations you say you have had with constituents and Mr. Kevin (Wilson) has had, in my view, are outdated. I don’t think you are still getting calls as it relates to service. We are not seeing that in our office. The calls have gone down substantially.”

District 1 Supervisor Kevin Wilson, president of the board, listed complaints from his constituents ranging from missed garbage collection to using pickup trucks, rather than garbage trucks, to collect garbage.

“Garbage is not being picked up in a timely manner. There are missed pick ups. Most of your trucks are broken down most of the time. I’ve seen people picking up trash in pickups and flat beds with dumpsters on them going down the road uncovered. I’ve seen men in dumpsters throwing out garbage into the back of trucks. Most of these things are probably illegal,” Wilson said.

“Like any and every waste company not only in this state but in this region, service levels cycle up and down,” Woods said. “We have certainly had issues one time or another. We have had issues with equipment and providing service at designated times. Certainly all of those issues have been corrected. We have brought in additional equipment and hired additional people. I don’t think you’ve seen any flatbeds or anybody pulling garbage out of a dumpster in over a year.

“We were doing anything we could to get garbage off of the street when we had a rash of breakdowns with some of the equipment, but that problem has long since been rectified,” he said. “As it relates to pickup trucks, we still use pickup trucks; we only do that on extremely narrow streets. We would do more damage on those streets if we went down them with a tandem axle garbage truck. We will ride a pickup down there, service those residents and bring that pickup and put that garbage into a bigger truck. We do that on a regular basis. We have been doing that as long as we’ve been in the county six years ago.”

District 5 Supervisor Warren Gaines echoed some of the same comments of Middleton and Wilson.

“I know y’all have had issues with trucks … The only thing I am concerned with is we try to get that trash picked up on time and on the days it should be picked up,” he said.

Gray thanked Woods for his years of service to the county and for helping out the county during the period in early 2023 when the county was without a garbage collector after Metro Services bankruptcy.

Woods was also CEO of Metro Services, which declared bankruptcy and stopped picking up trash just before Christmas in 2022.

Gray said the meeting’s purpose was to ensure Woods was aware of the complaints and issues the supervisors were receiving from taxpayers.

“Both of my parents are from Adams County. They left here in the ’50s and moved to New Orleans where I was raised. But both sides of my family are still here and it’s personal to me,” Woods said. “It’s important that I put our best foot forward and I’m committed to do that. We are going to continue to drive the numbers down. We are going to assess our equipment and upgrade it where it needs to be to get to the level of satisfaction to where the county is satisfied.”

Woods is also the chairman of the LSU Board of Supervisors.

Supervisors and Woods agreed to work together to count the actual number of houses from which garbage is being collected. Woods estimated that number to be between 5,600 and 5,700 households. Wilson said the number is fewer.

“We are $600,000 in arrears from this trash contract. Either people are refusing to pay their bills, or there aren’t that number of homes occupied in the county,” Wilson said.

He said population in the county has dropped from 43,000 residents to 27,000 residents in recent years.