By Barbara Behrendt, Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
BROOKSVILLE — Hundreds of frustrated Hernando County residents awaiting word on the new days for their garbage pickups flooded Republic Services and county phone lines over the past several days after promised notices were not received in the mail.
Republic, doing business as Seaside Sanitation, has been dealing with questions on a case-by-case basis, but the sheer volume of calls nearly crippled the company's customer service phone bank.
By midday Tuesday, a Republic official had notified the county that in addition to providing service to their Tuesday/Friday customers on Tuesday, they had put more trucks into service to also make pickups for Monday/Thursday customers who didn't know to put out their garbage on Monday.
In addition, with Wednesday as the first scheduled pickup of yard waste, the trucks on Wednesday will pick up garbage for anyone who has not yet had a pickup this week, according to an email sent to the county by Joe Assalti, Republic Services' division manager.
The fleet of new blue Republic trucks rolled out on Monday to begin providing service to more than 69,000 customers, but many didn't know whether that was their day or not because many notices had not yet been delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.
"The Christmas spirit is definitely gone,'' said Scott Harper, the solid waste manager for the county, who has been fielding calls from customers, some who have expressed anger and frustration.
Harper said the problem was compounded by the strong winds Monday night and into Tuesday that spread the trash throughout neighborhoods.
To view the county's maps that show which neighborhoods have pickups on which days, visit the county Utilities Department's Web page at hernandocounty.us/utils/SolidWaste_Recycling/franchise.htm.
The customer service numbers for Republic are 1-800-282-9820 and (727) 868-2566.
Barbara Behrendt can be reached at behrendt@tampabay.com or (352) 848-1434.