Vermilion Parish Police Jury in a pickle picking up garbage

The Vermilion Parish Police Jury finds itself in a pickle when it comes to garbage pickup in the parish.

On a perfect day, eight police jury garbage trucks would be picking up garbage throughout the parish throughout the week.

Well, it has been a while since there have been eight parish garbage trucks on the road, which has created headaches for residents and the police jury.

This week, the police jury has the eight trucks available to pick up the garbage, but where the problem lies is that there are not eight drivers to operate the trucks.

As of today, the police jury has only four full-time garbage truck drivers and one of the four will be retiring at the end of November bringing the total to three drivers to pick up the entire parish.

The simple solution would be to hire new drivers for the eight trucks.  But it is not that easy.

For the last two months the police jury has been in the process of looking to  hire a private company to pick up garbage in Vermilion Parish. 

The police jury are advertising for bids from private companies to see how much they would charge the police jury to pick up garbage, along with purchasing all of the police jury’s garbage trucks and cans. Residents pay a tax to have their garbage picked up roadside.

In the meantime, while the police jury is looking for a private company,  police jury employees who drive the garbage trucks are not happy with the situation, because they do not know if they will have a job in two months. Many have found jobs elsewhere.

Due to the shortage of drivers, the police jury has had to lease two Progressive garbage trucks and their drivers from a private company to help in picking up  garbage.  It is costing the police jury around $12,000  a week to lease the two private trucks.  The police jury has  put a third private truck on the road this week.

Linda Duhon, the administrator for the police jury, alerted the police jurors at Monday night’s regular scheduled meeting about the situation the parish is in dealing with garbage pickup. 

“Morale is not great,” Duhon told the jurors. “They (drivers) are not sure what is going to happen. I am looking for input. I want to know, what are the wishes of the police jury?”

“It is critical. We have to service the people of Vermilion Parish,” Duhon added.

The jurors are asking parish residents to be patient with garbage pickup. It will get picked up, but it may be later in the day instead of in the morning like normal, Duhon said.