Council President Seeks Update on Red River Situation

(photo courtesy of our partners at WPTA-TV)

Members of the Fort Wayne City Council, including the fiscal body’s president, are looking for an update as early as Tuesday on the status of the city’s troubled trash collection company. 

Last week, Red River Waste Solutions filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, raising concerns about whether city residents can count on regular service going forward.

Red River garbage trucks circled through some city neighborhoods Monday, picking up trash like they would any other day.

Red River officials in their bankruptcy filing in Texas last Thursday blamed the pandemic for creating a problem hiring enough workers.

The company claims the labor shortage contributed to fines being levied by cities where the trash hauler could not hit contractual benchmarks, leading to financial troubles.

City council president Paul Ensley has reached out to city solid waste officials, asking that they show up at council Tuesday and brief council members on where we stand with the Red River situation.

Trash customer Robert Robinson, who lives near Georgetown Square, has not kept up with all the ups and downs associated with Red River, but he wants to know if somebody is making sure his garbage gets taken care of.

“Who’s going to do it, what’s going to happen. I know we used to have Serv-All…I don’t know what happened to them. But again, they are pretty slow these guys here. Real slow, they have not been on target like they should,” Robinson said.

“Primarily we’re interested, in how, if at all, the service is going to be affected. For the residents our highest priority is making sure that the trash gets picked up every week going forward and then what the contingency plans are in the event the contractor cannot continue to get the trash picked up,” Ensley said.

At the time of this report, Red River officials said they were working on a statement clarifying how the trash hauling company intends to overcome its financial problems and maintain quality service for Fort Wayne trash customers.