MONTAGUE — The town will likely become the first in the Northeast to benefit from Republic Services’ new trash pickup mobile app amid recent collection issues, Municipal Sales Manager Tyler Finnegan revealed at last week’s Selectboard meeting.
The announcement came as part of a verbal commitment to improve services after the Selectboard criticized the waste collection company’s less-than-thorough pickup efforts. Between June 10 and June 13, board members said, waste collectors missed pickups along numerous streets. Accusations stemmed from both observation and complaints from residents.
On June 6, the company shifted from a four-day to a five-day collection schedule “to improve the reliability and efficiency of collection services,” according to the town website. Some streets that had previously been serviced on Tuesday or Wednesday switched to Monday service as a part of this change. Despite this new strategy to improve effectiveness, Selectboard members listed Griswold Street, Montague Street, Turnpike Road, Letourneau Way, Center Street and Federal Street as examples of where Republic Services failed to pick up trash on schedule between Friday, June 10, and Monday, June 13.
“What we’re finding is we’re getting calls from all over Montague,” Department of Public Works Superintendent Tom Bergeron added.
“For instance, today, I was really surprised as I drove home from work when I saw what was missed on Friday still not picked up,” Selectboard Chair Rich Kuklewicz said.
Finnegan said the reports of missed trash pickups were contrary to communication he had previously shared with others in his organization.
“I’m actually kind of shocked that there’s stuff still out on the ground,” he said. “From what I was told from my operations manager is that we were caught up by today, but it sounds like we’re not caught up from what was missed last week.”
“It seems like there’s a communication issue going up and down in terms of what being ‘caught up’ means,” Selectboard Clerk Matt Lord later responded.
Kuklewicz made it clear that his prerogative was not to criticize Finnegan or his company, but to work toward a solution.
“I don’t think it’ll do us any good to complain,” he said. “What I’d like to know is what’s happening and what remediation is being done.”
Finnegan rationalized that Republic Services is suffering from universal supply chain issues. The company, he said, is also low on trucks and drivers.
“It’s tough for us in the industry right now,” he said. “I don’t want to take away from the pain you’re experiencing, but it’s going on in different towns as well.”
Despite these struggles, Finnegan said, the company is “also working on better communication all around.”
“The problem is we’re probably getting the wrong information and someone’s probably going to have to pay for this,” he said. “They’re not telling us the right thing and someone’s probably going to lose their job over this, but then the other thing is … we have more people to let go.”
Finnegan said he has already spoken with the general manager to advocate for having supervisors and dispatchers check in with drivers mid-day to field whether they’re on track to complete their route. He then argued that the company’s upcoming app would improve services by providing residents with a more direct channel to communicate with the proper personnel.
“I’ve been talking to our IT team and we’re almost ready to launch this app that the residents in town can sign up for,” he told the Selectboard. “The app basically will say that if you were missed on that day, you click a button. It will say, ‘Hey, I was missed.’ That will go right to our dispatcher and that will get on the route sheet for the next day.”
This service will be up and running in just a couple of weeks, Finnegan hopes.
“We’re actually running data tests to have it start working in the town of Montague,” he said. “You’re probably going to be our first town in the Northeast to start with this and I’m hoping to have it running by July 1 if we can get buy-in from the residents to actually sign up.”
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-772-0261, ext. 261 or jmendoza@recorder.com.