Port Huron rethinking refuse contract after 'woefully inadequate' leaf pickup season

Port Huron officials said they may be taking the city’s business elsewhere next year when its current refuse collection contract runs out after copious complaints over leaf pickup this season.

At the end of Monday’s regular City Council meeting, City Manager James Freed told council members and residents that administrators were aware the current season wasn’t going well, calling the at-times weeks-long delay from Emterra Environmental in some areas “woefully inadequate.”

The city of Port Huron is split up into two zones north and south of the Black River with this year’s pick-up season beginning Oct. 17 and slated to end Nov. 26.

But moving forward, Freed said Emterra — not immune to a worker shortage, as in other industries — may have to continue into the winter to ensure residents’ leaves are all removed from residential curbsides.

“The problem is Emterra has not deployed enough staff and enough assets into the field. We were promised consistently that we would have four rigs — two rigs in each zone, working constantly. That has not been the case,” Freed said Monday night. “Some days, we get two rigs. Some days, we get one rig if we’re lucky. I did call Emterra. I talked to their leadership team. And I said, candidly, this is unacceptable.

“It’s been progressively getting worse every year. I mean, they were bad the first year, but they were really bad last year. Now, they’re invisible this year. I told them I’d fire them. But the problem I have with firing them now is there’s no one else that can come in and complete the job. You’d have to go out and hire people, lease the equipment. So, I could fire them today, which we debated last week, but then how do you get the leaves picked up before the snowfall?”

So, for now, Freed said the city’s best option may be to allow Emterra to complete its loops for the season before reapproaching the issue next spring to find “more capable and qualified folks who can deliver on what they promised" on weekly pickups.

Representatives from Emterra couldn’t be immediately reached as of early Tuesday.

The concerns about the long delays in leaf pickup, however, are also coming up elsewhere around the region, as residents in both Port Huron and Marysville approached their council with complaints at public meetings Monday.

Cindy Houska, who lives on Port Huron’s south side, or zone 1, said this week was the beginning of the third in a row with no pickup.

She told Port Huron officials on Monday that she’d driven around the north side in areas along Pine Grove Avenue, attempting to ensure it wasn’t just her neighborhood that went unaddressed.

“It is conceivable that I missed one truck wandering around lost somewhere on the south side,” Houska said. “… I don’t really care why they’re not being picked up. It makes no difference to me. But they’re not being picked up. So, the city’s obligation to the citizens is not being taken care of and pretty soon these obligations of the citizens to the city is going to be to throw the leaves into the roads.”

Port Huron Mayor Pauline Repp said she, too, has had issues with pickup, adding, “I live at the north end, and I just got my first pickup three days ago.”

Other council members also commented on the issue Monday.

“The two years that I’ve served on council, I haven’t been impressed or happy with Emterra,” said Councilman Bob Mosurak. He also pointed to other complaints he’s heard about Emterra, such as with trucks leaking “all over everybody’s neighborhoods.”

“I don’t know who all received calls on that,” he said. “… I think there’s a lot for this council to sit and review as far as continuing our relationship with them.”

Port Huron to weigh options in finding a new contractor

When asked after Monday’s meeting, Freed also said the concerns with Emterra went beyond leaf pickup delays, though the most recent issues prompted the discussion.

Like Mosurak, he cited leaky trucks and “throwing of trash cans” garnering complaints in the regular weekly garbage collection year-round.

Port Huron council members first OK’d a five-year $9.6 million contract in April 2018 with Emterra — an option lower by $1.2 million from then-collector Marcotte Disposal.

Freed said they’ll look at best practices around the state to find out how best to bid that out, including whether to separate the leaf pickup piece or take over some services in-house in the city.

“When a contractor can’t deliver, you find a new contractor,” he said. But the city manager said the issue becomes how contractors lease or take on temporary workers.

“They kind of expand their operations just for leaf pickup. So, we’re going to look at what that looks like,” Freed said. “Are we capable of doing it internally? Maybe we’d claw that back. It’s all on the chopping black right now.”

The current contract ends next June.

Freed's overall message to residents was more straightforward: “We hear you. We’re equally as annoyed.”

Marysville officials in 'constant contact' with Emterra over issue

Marysville resident Lynn Daniels approached her City Council members armed with a host of questions about leaf pickup issues, who the contractor was, what that contract looked like, what the city’s communication was like, and what it’d take for better service.

And like Port Huron, Marysville’s leaf pickup schedule, which goes through Dec. 2, is with Emterra.

“My leaves have not been picked up at all,” Daniels said Monday night. “I’ve got a pile probably about eight feet long, four feet tall. I have a kid. I don’t have time to rake them every single weekend. So, they haven’t been picked up even on nice days. … But why is this being allowed to continue to go on?”

Councilman David Barber attempted to shed light on the issue facing the refuse collector with a recap that officials received: Emterra had six vacuum trucks to serve both Port Huron and Marysville.

“This year, three of them are (broken) down. Two of the trucks were less than two years old. Like everything else out in industry, parts were not available, no delivery, so they were down to one truck working the city of Marysville, one truck working up there,” Barber said. But he added they’ve been hearing pickup issues for years.

“I’m not taking the blame away from Emterra from anyone else. I agree with you,” Barber said. “That's something down the road and I’m sure this council will definitely look into this and get some hard answers.”

Marysville Mayor Kathy Hayman said she’d look to sit down with the city’s public services director, Barry Kreiner, to figure things out.

On Tuesday, City Manager Randy Fernandez said they’d been in “constant contact” with Emterra, pushing to honor the city’s agreement to have leaves picked up by Dec. 2.

Marysville’s contract with Emterra was OK’d in 2019 and runs through 2024.

“So, it’s an unfortunate situation. No excuses. Whether it’s labor or trucks breaking down,” Fernandez said. “We made them aware. I just got off the phone with their head management team again, and they’re assuring us that they’re doing everything they possibly can. We’re trying to work with them the best we can and get the places caught up, and that’s what we’re working under right now.”

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Port Huron rethinking refuse contract after 'woefully inadequate' leaf pickup season