Flint Trash Pickup Will Resume Tuesday, Mayor Says
FLINT (AP) — Garbage collection in Flint will resume Tuesday after a one-day suspension as a trash hauler agreed to a temporary deal and residents fumed over the controversy between the mayor and City Council.
"It's like we are living in a Third World country," Travis Gilbert said. "First, we had dirty water, and now we are living with trash."
Indeed, Flint residents are weary. Tap water must be filtered because of lead contamination, and Mayor Karen Weaver and the City Council now are fighting over whom to hire to pick up trash.
Weaver wants to replace Republic Services with Rizzo Environmental Services, but the council has voted to keep the incumbent. Republic's contract expired Friday, which meant no trash pickup Monday.
The mayor said Republic will be back on the job Tuesday and at least through Aug. 12. She hopes a state board that is monitoring Flint's weak finances will settle the controversy on Aug. 10.
"My main objective is to do what's best for the citizens and the city of Flint," Weaver said. "Members of City Council and I may have different views on what that is, but residents should not be inconvenienced because of it."
Separately, a council member is suing Weaver over the trash clash.
Resident Rhonda Chatman is frustrated.
"I'm not going to let my trash pile in my house or in my garage. It can just stay on my curb," she told the Flint Journal.
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