NABORS' demise has many looking for trash service
With the recent news that Nabors Sanitation is going out of business as of Nov. 30, many rural Ozark Countians are scrambling to find new trash-pickup service.
In Gainesville, unless residents want to rent a wheeled cart for delivering their trash to the curb, those who live inside the city limits won’t have to do anything to connect with the city’s new trash contractor, Waste Corporation of America. It will happen automatically, said city clerk Lavese Ericksen.
“The city pays for the residential pickup,” said Ericksen. “But if residents want to rent a container, they’ll need to contact WCA about that. The good thing is, it looks like it’ll be a little cheaper to rent a cart from WCA than it was from Nabors.”
Those renting carts from Nabors were paying $3.75 per month, Ericksen said. WCA will offer the service for $2 per month, paid a year in advance. Residents should call WCA to arrange for carts, which will be delivered as soon as possible, said WCA manager Randy Weaver. “We’ll be working hard to get the carts and bins out,” he said. “We may be working through the weekend to get it done.”
Commercial customers within the Gainesville city limits will be contacted by WCA to discuss the service they need – what size container and whether they need pickup once or twice a week. Prices range from $51.29 per month for once-a-week pickup of the smallest two-cubic-yard Dumpsters to $287.31 per month for twice-weekly pick up of the largest (eight-cubic-yard) containers, said Weaver.
The new residential pickup day will be Friday, beginning Dec. 7, said Weaver. Commercial pickup will be available Tuesdays and Fridays, depending on what each business arranges. The first commercial pickup will be Tuesday, Dec. 4, for businesses arranging for twice-weekly pickup.
“And we do start each day early,” he said. “We’ll be getting into Gainesville around 4 a.m. to pick up the commercial accounts, and we’ll start residential pickup between 5 and 6 a.m., so residents need to put their trash out the night before.”
Nabors’ last trash pickup day in Gainesville and Ozark County will be Thursday, Nov. 29. “And then we ask customers to leave their carts empty and out at the curb so that we can start picking them up beginning Friday, Nov. 30,” a Nabors spokeswoman said.
In rural Ozark County, empty Nabors commercial-size bins will be picked up beginning Monday, Dec. 3. “It may take us awhile to get them all picked up, maybe all the way to the end of December,” she said.
The letter Nabors sent to customers reminded them that because the company bills one month behind, the November service bills will be sent out Dec. 1 and are due by Dec. 15. Gainesville residential customers are billed only if they rent individual carts; commercial customers pay for their contracted service.
Erickensen said the Nabors letter might be confusing to Gainesville residents and businesses because it mentions other companies that are available to take over the trash service. But within the city of Gainesville, customers must use WCA, the service contracted by the Gainesville Board of Aldermen.
“We have an exclusive contract with WCA,” Ericksen said. “But I think that most people will be happy with it because it looks like it’ll cost a little less than they were paying before.”
WCA manager Randy Weaver said right now his company’s main trash-pickup route is along Highway 5 north from Gainesville to Ava, but he hopes WCA can expand their pickup routes to include other areas of Ozark County.
Service within a half mile of the Gainesville city limits can be arranged for $15 per month plus a fuel surcharge that currently is 12 percent, Weaver said. Rural service includes a trash cart.
The WCA landfill is near Hartville; the company also has a regional office in Mountain Grove. Weaver invites residents to call WCA to ask about rates and availability in rural parts of the county: 800-926-3953.
Residents outside Gainesville who contract with Nabors to pick up individual wheeled carts or large containers will need to find a new trash-collection service. Some services, including IESI, based in Ash Flats, Ark., with a transfer station in Midway, and are already picking up trash in various parts of Ozark County.
IESI spokesman Bill Dicks said last week the company’s phones “are ringing off the hook” with calls from Ozark County residents and businesses inquiring about service.
The company current provides trash pickup in the Dora area on Wednesday and in the Theodosia and Pontiac areas on Tuesday. It also picks up trash along Highway 160 east, including the Tecumseh and Caulfield areas, Dicks said.
Residents can call IESI at 800-905-0572 or 870-481-8600 to inquire about service.
Other area trash pickup services include MSI (870-449-3000) and Methvin Sanitation (870-427-8095). The Times was unable to contact spokespersons for those companies by press time.
Another option for area residents is to take trash to the Ozark County Recycling Center at Lilly Ridge. Currently the center charges $2 for any size bag of trash, and it is open from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday – Friday. However, rates may change because currently the center’s trash is picked up by Nabors; so, like everyone else, it will have to make new arrangements.
The center also accepts glass bottles and jars, plastic, newspaper and magazines and cardboard for recycling. Magazines should be sorted from newsprint and bottles and jars should be rinsed out. Call the center at 417-679-3444 for more information.