New garbage company in Vermilion Parish could be fined $100 for each missed trash can

One way to force a company into getting better at picking up garbage cans in Vermilion Parish is to hit them in the pocket book.
Since March, Progressive Waste Solutions has been picking up garbage cans throughout Vermilion Parish. The Police Jury sold its garbage trucks and trash cans to Progressive Waste Solutions.
The Duson-based company comes into Vermilion Parish to pick up just the garbage cans and empty them into the solid waste facility in the parish.
Despite the police jury no longer in the garbage business, police jurors are still receiving phone calls from residents who have not had their garbage cans picked up. Jurors have complained of entire roads not being picked up.
The jurors have complained to Progressive Waste Solutions administrators who are in charge of the parish, but many garbage cans are still being missed four months into the contract.
The jurors wanted to know if there was something in the contract that could make Progressive do a better job in garbage pick up.
“How do we hold them accountable?” said juror Errol Domingues.
Engineer Gene Sellers Sr. informed the jurors there is a clause written into the contract that deals with missed garbage cans.
Every time Progressive or the Police Jury gets a complaint about a missed garbage can, it has 24 hours to fix the complaint. If it does not, the Police Jury can penalize Progressive $100 for each complaint.
For example, if someone on Wildcat Drive notices his trash can did not get picked up, he calls the police jury office or his juror. The juror or someone from the police jury office has to call that complaint into Progressive's parish office in Kaplan.
Based on the contract, Progressive has 24 hours to empty that person’s garbage can on Wildcat Drive. If two days go by and the trash can is still not emptied, the Police Jury could penalize Progressive $100 per day.
Where the problem lies is when parish residents call the Kaplan number to complain. The jurors have no way of knowing who calls and if their problem was ever solved within 24 hours.
The jurors talked about hiring a part-time person at the police jury office to handle the garbage can complaints from residents. That person would answer the phone, document the phone call, get an address and then send it to Progressive office in Kaplan.
Police Juror Paul Bourgeois said by hiring someone, the police jury is getting back into the garbage business, a business they voted to get out of five months ago.
“We are starting a whole new layer,” Bourgeois.
Progressive Waste Solutions Director Tim Taylor, who is in charge of Vermilion Parish, said there was a problem of missing houses and his company is working every day to fix the problem.
He said his company will do a better job tracking the missed garbage cans.