From Mayor Patrick McClusky:

As I reported to the City Council a few weeks ago about this meeting, the Cahaba Solid Waste Authority (CWSA) and representatives from Homewood, Hoover, Mt. Brook, Vestavia Hills, Pelham, Trussville, Clanton, and Fultondale met with Amwaste today, January 19, at Hoover City Hall, to express our complaints and concerns, and also to hear updates from Amwaste on resolutions for these ongoing problems.

It was expressed through the representatives of each municipality that the level of service has been, and continues to be (in some areas), unacceptable based on the needs and requirements of the cities under contract with CSWA. Continually missed routes, multi-day delays, and the holiday disasters were all addressed in the meeting. Amwaste recognized and agreed with the shortfalls in these areas and have put together actions plans to address these issues as soon as possible.

From a Homewood standpoint, we expressed that whatever needed to be done to ensure that the garbage was picked up on the day that it is scheduled is our number one priority. If there is a truck that breaks down, that another truck is immediately dispatched to finish the route on the same day, even if it’s pushed to later in the evening. We no longer need to wait and finish the route the next day, or later in some cases. Monday and Tuesday are Homewood’s heaviest days for collection, so making sure those routes are finished to completion will alleviate the issues of using Wednesday as a “catch up day”, and keeping us on track for Thursday and Friday pickup. Action plans for Homewood include possible additional trucks, additional dispatcher, additional route manager, route completion process, training, and more.

The CWSA also asked about the partnership with Re-Power, and whether they were still working with them on the recycling trips. Amwaste representatives informed us that they are still taking daily trips to Re-Power in Montgomery for recycling purposes.

Homewood continues to stay in constant communication with Amwaste representatives on their immediate action plans, and we will have another meeting with them in 60 days for a review of these implementations and see how things have progressed. I expect to see positive change in the service levels from all aspects.

It was mentioned in the meeting that even missing ten houses in any one of these cities is perceived as failing, so we remain hopeful that Amwaste will right the ship in the very near future. We will also continue to educate the residents on proper garbage protocols and make suggestions for the busier times of the year (holidays, spring cleaning, etc…) to help alleviate future issues.

If you experience an issue, we continue to ask that you use See-Click-Fix, that can also be found on our website from THIS PAGE. This provides us with the information we need when we meet with Amwaste for their review, and gives us data to see how their services are trending.

Thank you,

Patrick A. McClusky
Mayor / City of Homewood
pmcclusky@homewoodal.org