Parish council asks 2X weekly pickup or 2 carts in rural areas

A resolution asking for twice-weekly garbage collection in unincorporated areas, or two carts for those residents, was approved by the St. Landry Parish Council’s public works committee.
Timmy Lejeune, District 11 councilman, who has become the point councilman on the garbage collection issue, said, “We would like to be treated like the people in the municipalities.”
Meanwhile, the blue carts are set to arrive in Eunice Monday.
Gardie McManus, a member of the St. Landry Parish Solid Waste Commission from Eunice, told a Eunice council agenda meeting Thursday, “If it is anything like in Opelousas, we can expect a pretty good bit of confusion for some time.”
The 96-gallon carts, which will be picked up by trucks operated by a single person, were first delivered in Opelousas and the unincorporated area between Eunice and Opelousas.
Eventually, nearly 40,000 carts will be placed at residences in St. Landry Parish and serviced by Progressive Waste Solutions trucks.
The stump in the road for the trash collection plan on the parish council is unincorporated area get one trash pickup a week while incorporated areas receive two pickups.
Concessions have been made to pick up all garbage, but with the caveat that residents who routinely put out more than one cart full of trash will eventually have to buy a second cart at a price of $95 from Progressive.
McManus said carts, which must be similar to those provided and sold by Progressive, can be purchased from retailers.
The Progressive garbage carts are embedded with a code identifying them to a residence.
But it has been the fairness issue of the pickup schedule that has kept critics such as Lejeune seeking a solution.
Lejeune said, “I would like to know if it is constitutional for them to divide that tax revenue in that process. It seems to me there is a very strong possibility that people in the municipalities are receiving more of that tax revenue or getting better service than the people in rural St. Landry Parish.”
Pam Gautreau, District 8 council member, said when the 0.8 cent sales tax for the Solid Waste Disposal District was first brought up it was unfair because unincorporated areas were not receiving the same service for the same tax.
“The reason they gave why the municipalities were getting twice-a-week garbage when we were only getting the once-a-week was that was the deal they made to get the tax passed,” she said. “Like so many taxes around here, there is always back door deals being made to get something they want.”
At one point the disposal district was transferring around $1 million to the parish for road work, she said. “That has since dwindled ...” she said.
Bill Fontenot, parish president, said it was about a year ago since the last transfer of money from the disposal district to the parish government and the amount was about $300,000.
“...It was probably the least we ever received,” Fontenot said.
There has been no transfer of trash money this year, he said.
Ronald Buschel, District 5 council member and chairman of the public works committee, said unincorporated areas are under-represented on the solid waste commission.