Manhattan — Today, it seemed like all Manhattan residents could do was talk trash, at least when it came down to their curbside trash service.
Residents got the stinky news after the City of Manhattan issued warnings for those with excess trash at their curbs.
Many of the problems were derived from customers of Arrow Trash Service. The company has been three weeks behind with trash pick-ups, leaving some customers with a lot of garbage and complete frustration.
“I was pretty disgusted because I thought that they should have notified the customers in some way with what was going on,” says Marilyn Lee, Manhattan resident and former customer of Arrow Trash Service. “We didn’t know if they were still in business. We didn’t know if we needed to contact someone else to pick up out trash. We didn’t know what to do.”
Arrow Trash serves 2,500 people in Manhattan, and has had problems ever since its only service truck shut down last December.
“Because of the holidays, our supplier was closed between Christmas and New Years,” says Elaine Miller, Arrow Trash employee.
Though the company has been catching up with service this week, residents have been the ones paying the price. City code official Brad Claussen says no matter how poor the service, Manhattan residents should take responsibility in their own hands.
“You know, we’re not here to place blame on anybody, “Claussen says. “Our responsibility is to make sure the trash gets picked up and then it’s the owner’s responsibility of the property to make sure that happens.”
Though the city of Manhattan has issued written warnings for those who have not properly disposed their trash, the city has not fined people at this time.