The Minden City Council held a workshop Tuesday, July 1, to discuss widespread issues with trash collection services provided by Republic Services. While no official action was taken, city leaders voiced strong concerns about recent failures in pickup across multiple districts.
Mayor Nick Cox and council members Buddy Myles (District A), Latasha Mitchell (District C), Michael Roy (District D), and Andy Pendergrass (District E) were present for the session at Minden City Hall. Also in attendance were David Greene, Manager of Municipal Services for North Louisiana and Western Mississippi, and Kevin Frey, General Manager for Republic Services.
Greene acknowledged missed pickups in large portions of District E and parts of Districts A and D. He had toured Minden on Sunday alongside Mayor Cox to personally observe the extent of uncollected garbage.
“I feel like we’ve been patient with a truck breakdown, or an accident, or even a person getting overheated,” Cox said. “We understand that the job is hard. Personally, I don’t care if they drive down the road on pogo sticks and have aliens take the trash to Neptune; it doesn’t matter to me. At the end of the day on Friday, the trash needs to be picked up.”
Republic Services recently transitioned to automated side-loader (ASL) trucks, designed to improve efficiency and safety. However, these vehicles only collect trash placed in approved containers, leaving behind additional bags or yard debris.
“There’s more limbs and things like that that people don’t want to take to the dump,” said Councilman Pendergrass, noting increased dumping fees at the landfill. “And the service for picking those things up is worse. So now we’ve got an increasingly trashy city.”
Mayor Cox agreed, stating, “We’ve worked too hard [to make improvements to the city] to get a black eye over a basic service that should be provided through our contract. We shouldn’t even have to worry about it.”
Greene confirmed that Republic had intended to supplement the ASLs with additional trucks to collect overflow trash but admitted that plan has not yet been implemented. “You’re 100% right; if they’re going to run the ASLs, it’s our responsibility to make sure everything else gets picked up accordingly,” he said.
Frey, who recently took over as general manager, pledged improvements. “We failed, but we’re going to get this fixed,” he said.
Customer service complaints are currently handled by city employee Kenzie Taylor. Although Republic offered to manage those calls, Mayor Cox declined. “I would rather handle it ourselves. At least I’ll know when we’re having problems,” he said.
Republic Services only suspends operations for New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Despite the Independence Day holiday, regular trash pickup is expected to proceed on Friday.
“I have one request,” Cox said as the meeting concluded. “Pick up the trash.”