News

Laurel Park also puts heat on Waste Pro

Robert Allen (left) and John Witherspoon explain Waste Pro's plans at a meeting of the Laurel Park Town Board last week.

By Lightning Reports, Published: February 21, 2018

LAUREL PARK — Facing a 30-day window from the county to fix widespread service problems, Waste Pro is also responding to complaints of poor service in the town of Laurel Park, where it has a contract to serve 1,265 households.

Operations manager John Witherspoon and Director of Government Relations Robert Allen tried to assure the Town Board last week that it is correcting problems that led to missed pickups, mixing recycling with regular garbage and other service breakdowns.
“We’re requiring our routes and lead guy, each week he has to come in and check with city hall, to see if they’ve got anything, any comments, concerns,” Witherspoon said. “They will notify us and we will service that account in less than 24 hours. Upon that, they will report back to Alison (Alexander, the town manager), ‘This is how it was taken care of.’”
Witherspoon handed out the company’s eight-point operational plan for Laurel Park that committed to frequent communication, complaint resolution and 24-hour pickup of missed accounts.
“We want you to succeed,” Mayor Carey O’Cain said. “We have received a number of negative comments. There are growing pains, we understand that. But we also don’t want bears to get into the litter that’s been out there overnight and spread all over the vicinity. We want the assurance also that recycling is going to recycling.”
Town Council members asked whether Waste Pro could send a representative to an “Ask the Experts” event during the Rhododendron Lake Nature Park celebration on April 27. One topic could be bear-proof garbage cans.
“They actually make a bear cart and they actually work,” Allen said. “We launched a whole program down in Florida. Believe it or not, they have a huge bear problem in Central Florida.”
Based in Longwood, Fla., Waste Pro is the largest privately held waste hauler in the country. County commissioners warned company officials last month that they’d pull their license to do business here if they didn’t resolve widespread service problems. Laurel Park also has leverage to force improved service. A five-year contract with the provider expires June 30. The Town Council plans to take up the issue during a budget retreat this spring.