Mar 26, 2014 3 min read

North Strabane Township supervisors are thinking about dumping Republic Services if the garbage collection company doesn’t clean up its act.

Residents let their displeasure be known about Republic’s trash removal over the past three months, and supervisors threatened during their Tuesday night meeting to void the contract if it doesn’t improve immediately.

“If I knew on Jan. 1 what I know today, I would’ve never made the motion to approve that contract (with Republic),” supervisors’ Chairman Brian Spicer said. “We have received complaint after complaint from residents. I am not going to put up with that anymore.”

Republic took over waste removal in the township this year after it submitted a bid slightly less than previous provider Waste Management offered for 2014. The Republic contract is about $8 less per household annually than what Waste Management offered the township.

Spicer complained of the “bare-bones service” and made it clear to John McGoran, the company’s manager of municipal services who attended the meeting to address the problems, that they would not hesitate to terminate the contract if garbage removal does not improve over the next few weeks.

Supervisor Robert Balogh held up a thick three-ringed binder filled with complaints and said residents have jammed the township’s phone lines notifying workers of ongoing problems.

“You have an obligation to provide a good service,” Balogh told McGoran. “I can tell you I’ve never experienced such a prolonged problem with a service in the township.”

McGoran admitted there were communication problems in the beginning and noted the harsh winter didn’t help with the collection. He asked for continued patience from the township’s residents and promised the services will continue to improve over the next few weeks.

“There’s no question that we’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way,” he said.

But Supervisor Sonia Stopperich suggested there were bigger factors than just communication issues and cold weather. Stopperich pointed to equipment problems and temporary, out-of-town employees over the past three months that she thinks compounded the issue and asked McGoran if his company was prepared from the beginning to fulfill the contract.

“I think you were misrepresenting your company,” Stopperich said of the bidding process.

Even if the garbage removal problems persist in April, township Manager Frank Siffrinn admitted there are few solutions immediately available. He said it would most likely be June before the township could find a temporary provider to handle garbage collection for the rest of the year.