PHOENIX — Some Phoenix residents are dealing with some trash trouble -- there have been delays with bulk trash pickup across the city and some are frustrated with the piling trash.
From chairs to stacks of branches, you don't have to go far to find heaps of debris in the city.
"I've been here since 2016," said resident Bud Humphreville. "I've never seen a big problem or delay with it. I feel sorry for my poor neighbor who has an entire Palo Verde tree at her house."
Humphreville lives in the Phoenix Homesteads neighborhood near 24th Street and Thomas Road, where bulk trash has sat untouched for weeks.
"This time around, this particular pickup, I'm told they're having trouble finding people and therefore there's going to be a delay," Humphreville said.
City officials said some parts of Phoenix are weeks behind schedule on getting bulk trash picked up.
"We're probably as much as five weeks behind schedule in some areas," said City of Phoenix Public Works Director Joe Giudice. "Right now, we are experiencing some delays, we have been for about a month or two now at least."
Giudice tells 12News the department is behind schedule because they're short operators, a problem, he says, that was worsened by the pandemic.
"It's a skilled, commercial drivers license operator type position," he said. "There's a national shortage of these drivers. I think we're about 60 positions short of where we'd like to be in an ideal state. I think we were starting to see challenges in this sector even before the pandemic, but during the pandemic there was a great demand for truck drivers. You have more deliveries, more truck drivers, and more supply chain issues and so all of us are competing for the same talented workforce and that's the challenge right now."
The city is now offering increased pay, retention incentives, and other perks to try and motivate applicants. That includes a hiring incentive of $2,500 for new employees and a retention incentive of $3,000. Giudice says the hope is to be back on track by Nov. 21st.
"I apologize for the delays," Giudice said. "We pride ourselves on being timely, reliable. Obviously we're not delivering on that right now, we're going to get that corrected and get back to a place where they can have faith and confidence in us. We just appreciate (customers) patience, we've adjusted the schedule to get us caught up."
Meanwhile, Humphreville says he's rolling with it. However, he does hope things get picked up soon, that way the neighborhood can be a clean neighborhood once again.
"It's the first time in all the years I've been here," he said. "So I'm okay, it happens. Keep my fingers crossed."
If you'd like to take care of your bulk trash yourself, residents can bring the items directly to a transfer station at no cost.
For more information on trash pickup go to city's website.
If you're interested in seeing job opportunities with the City of Phoenix, you can go to www.Phoenix.gov.
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