Progressive has garbage pickup problems

The Vermilion Parish Police Jury is four months into its contract with Progressive Waste Solutions to pick up garbage in the parish, and the jury is already not happy with the marriage. Acadia Parish, next to Vermilion, is three years into its contract with Progressive, and they want to divorce the national company.
Vermilion Parish Police Jury hired Progressive to handle the day-to-day task of garbage pickups throughout the parish. The jury even sold Progressive its trucks, which are being used in the parish. The jurors are continuing to get complaints from residents about Progressive trucks missing their garbage can, breaking their cans or leaving garbage on the road or in their yard after a can is emptied.
One Acadia Parish Police Juror said the Vermilion Parish jurors need to get used to the complaints, because they will never go away. A.J. “Fatty” Broussard , an Acadia police juror, said Progressive has been “chaos.”
“I am aggravated with them,” said Broussard. “Every time we call them, it is never their fault.”
Last week, the Acadia Police Jury had a special meeting to try and solve its problem with Progressive.
At the meeting, Donna Bertrand, the human resource director of the Acadia Police Jury, showed the jurors a file with documents listing complaints of missed garbage pickups. In Acadia Parish, they have a person who works with the jury to specifically take complaints from residents who have missed garbage cans. This person does this job full-time.
Vermilion Parish is looking to hire a part-time person to do the same. Broussard said that part-time job will turn into full time.
It has gotten so bad that Acadia Parish is looking into suing Progressive Waste for not full-filling its contract obligations.
Vermilion Parish has a contract with Progressive and in the contract, it states Progressive can be fined $100 per day for not picking up a garbage can in a 24-hour period.
Broussard said good luck in getting Progressive to pay that fine. Acadia Parish has a $250 a day fine in its contract, and has actually submitted Progressive with $20,000 in fines. The parish has yet to see one penny of those fines.
Broussard said they won’t pay the fines because they asked the jury to prove that the garbage cans were not at the road when the trucks passed. The jurors could not prove the cans were not there.
Acadia Parish contract with Progressive ends in January of 2016. If Broussard is re-elected in 2015, he said he will push not to renew Progressive’s contract .
“I wish someone from Vermilion Parish would have called the jurors in Acadia Parish before they hired Progressive. We would have gave them an earful.”