Eastern Kentucky trash service faces major delays from winter storm

EASTERN KENTUCKY, (WYMT) — The treacherous winter storm has created the most challenging trash pickup conditions sanitation workers have experienced in Eastern Kentucky, with crews unable to reach secondary roadways for days.

Troy Catron, Eastern Kentucky operations manager at Rumpke, said the situation affects everyone involved.

“It’s a bad situation. It’s a bad situation for Rumpke. It’s a bad situation for any garbage collector. It’s a bad situation for the people that aren’t getting their garbage serviced,” Catron said.

Catron, who has been picking up trash for 18 years, said Eastern Kentucky crews face additional challenges compared to other parts of the state.

“We have a lot more rural roads and the consequences the sliding off the road up here are often going into a creek or rolling down the side of a mountain. Where a lot of the parts of the state, you have guard rails and fences and stuff next to the road to, you know, make it safer for us,” he said.

Secondary and county roadways remain particularly problematic because they receive less sunlight due to the mountainous terrain.

“They’re solid ice and even the ones that are cleared, a lot of times, we can’t turn these big trucks around in just anybody’s driveway,” Catron said.

Even when roads are clear, workers face dangerous conditions accessing trash containers due to ice.

“Then a big issue that we have is a lot of times the road may be clear, but the access for us when we park our truck in the road and we have to walk over to the trash, that’s solid ice. And our number one goal is the safety of our drivers,” he said.

Catron oversees 27 employees in Eastern Kentucky. He said safety remains the top priority despite service delays.

“Our number one goal is the safety of our drivers. We can’t have guys getting hurt. Um and we don’t want to put our trucks on these bad roads where it could elevate the risk of us striking another vehicle and hurting somebody else,” Catron said.

Rumpke officials ask customers for patience as crews work to resume normal service.

“Just be patient with us. We’ll get to it when we can. When we can get there, we’ll take all that’s available. All that’s out. We’ll get it,” Catron said.

To view Rumpke’s collection dates for EKY, click here.

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