SWANSEA -- The town’s trash disposal and recycling are serviced through Waste Management. But to Selectmen Chairman Christopher Carreiro, there is a problem with the company name.
“They are not managing waste,” Carreiro said this week.
In neighboring Somerset, Highway Director Chris Simons said Waste Management trash complaints are a regular problem there as well.
At last week’s Swansea select board meeting, all three board members talked about issues with Waste Management. All agreed that there have been regular issues with the international company, which has been servicing Swansea since April 2019.
Reached last week, Waste Management spokesman Garrett Trierweiler said that the company regularly monitors issues and it appears that these problems are small in comparison to the volume of service performed in town.
“We monitor service delivery on a regular basis and log any specific inquiries of an address claiming to have been missed. Over the past three months the highest number of incidents recorded was 15 in any given week, which when compared to the roughly 18,000 collections scheduled per week, represents less than 1/100th of a percent,” Trierweiler said this week.
“This level of service has been provided throughout the pandemic, largely due to the aggressive measures the company took early on to protect the safety and well-being of our employees and the commitment of our dedicated workforce to provide uninterrupted service.”
Selectmen agreed to write a formal letter to the company and request that a representative meet with the board.
Trierweiler said the company has not yet received such an invitation.
Selectmen Vice Chairman Derek Heim, Highway Department Director William Anderson and Selectman Steven Kitchin all said they have fielded regular calls from residents. Calls have ranged from Waste Management missing entire streets, failing to collect trash bags, and other issues -- all four officials said last week.
Carreiro repeatedly said that Anderson being assigned to manage Waste Management issues represents a waste of time and money.
“Your time is much more valuable doing something else,” Carreiro said to Anderson last week.
“Because of the poor performance of Waste Management, we are paying one of our department heads to manage and baby sit their operation,” Carreiro said.
Trierweiler said that it is communities that provide their owner representative liaison between the town and the company.
“In each community we serve they typically designate a liaison to handle the normal, day-to-day communications with the service delivered to each home, every week. The liaison is determined by the community and not Waste Management,” Trierweiler said. “We are happy to work with whoever the community designates.”
Kitchin said when the town was serviced by Howland Disposal, things were different.
Kitchin said before a contract was signed, the Howland owner would meet with the board and pitch a contract to selectmen -- a personal, small-business touch now missing.
But Waste Management bought out Howland, according to selectmen.
“We are dealing with an entity that has proven to this (board) member that they just don’t care,” Kitchin said at last week’s select board meeting.
Heim said the company is under contract until 2023, and if they have an interest in being a reputable business, a company representative should answer the complaints.
Reached after Tuesday’s meeting, Carreiro mentioned that he would like the town to start collecting liquidated damages for some of these issues. He said these issues represent a breach of contract.
Carreiro said his colleagues on the select board have pointed out an accurate point: The costs of enforcing “our rights exceed the value of the liquidated damages.”
Still, Carreiro said the town should consider it just to send a message to the company.
Carreiro brought up another financial issue; Discontinuing the contract and going out to bid could wind up being more costly.
Anderson also said that getting another vendor could double costs.
Last October, the Somerset select board was reporting issues, as well as an interest in moving on from Waste Management.
Reached this week, Town Administrator Richard Brown said he is not aware of any recent issues, but deferred the matter to Simons. Simons contended that Waste Management issues are still occurring.
“When this issue first arose they gave us a different route manager who seemed to at least complete daily collections. The gentlemen we have now is the same one we had in the beginning who clearly cannot manage the routes,” Simons said in an email this week.