Interim agreement reached for Flint trash pick-up services (UPDATE)

FLINT, Mich. (WJBK) - WEB UPDATE: Mayor Karen Weaver announced that an interim agreement has been reached to handle trash pickup services.

The service will resume Tuesday due to the agreement with Republic Services. The arrangement is scheduled to remain in place until Aug. 12. 

“I want to thank Republic Services for agreeing to resume trash collection in Flint while we work to resolve this matter,” said Weaver in a release. “My main objective is to do what’s best for the citizens and the City of Flint. Members of city council and I may have different views on what that is, but residents should not be inconvenienced because of it.”

Members of the Receivership Transition Advisory Board (RTAB) are scheduled to meet August 10, 2016. At that meeting the board should decide which company will be awarded the contract to collect waste in Flint on a more permanent basis.    

Original story is below.

As Flint residents continue to comeback from the water crisis, they're now dealing with a new city issue -- trash.

Starting Monday, there will be no trash pickup service in Flint until further notice.

The trash pick-up will be held off while the city settles a dispute over the contractor. City council voted to keep the old provider, the mayor wanted to go with someone different.

Because they haven't reached a solution, frustrated residents will have to decide where their trash will go in the meantime.

"Keep it in the house? Don't set it out? Come on now," said Sheila Nutall, a Flint resident. "Who wants a house full of stinky trash?"

Residents are searching for ways to deal with the issue.

"(I'll) just keep it in the back yard I guess," said Flint resident Reginald Chatters. "There are a lot of abandoned houses around I must just put it there."

Homeowners are advised to keep the trash in the house, for many, next to the cases of bottled water their still using.

"Don't get me started on the water," said city resident Scott Bland. "Do you have enough in that thing to tape me talking about the water? I don't think you do."

Meetings will resume this week between the mayor, city council and lawyers, to sort out this mess before the city gets trashed.

"What can you do? You can't just up and move. You've got bills, a mortgage," a Flint resident said. "What are you going to do? Just leave your home?"

Residents have no idea when the issue will be resolved. The city says indefinitely -- meaning it could be tomorrow, it could be a lot longer than that.

"We're already struggling, and this neighborhood has improved a little bit but every time we come up a notch something always knocks us back down," Nutall said.