West Central Reporter

At its March 27 meeting, City of Jacksonville Council had a discussion about an item that was not on its agenda for the night, but had been a daily issue for most city staff and many residents for some time. 

The issue was a lack of service from GFL, the city’s contracted solid waste management provider, who was not picking up trash from residents as it had agreed to in its contract with the city. The city has weekly trash pickup and biweekly recycling pickup for paying residents, both of which are covered by GFL Environmental.

Council members discussed the lack of service they had been given in recent weeks. City clerk Skip Bradshaw said that a resident was receiving bills but had not had trash picked up in weeks. Council member Lori Oldenettel said she received two bills instead of one, and some of her neighbors had received a bill at a residence they didn’t live at and didn’t even have a trash can to be picked up. 

Council members said they were tired of dealing with these problems and not getting any sort of communication back from GFL. They discussed having the city attorney draft a letter explaining the issues and how they felt GFL was violating their service agreement. 

"So it's an ongoing issue. They're well aware of it. Jacksonville people out there are not the issue. Our people, the city of Jacksonville employees are not the issue," Bradshaw said. "It is GFL and it's their management, out of Peoria, that are not taking care of some of the things that they said that they would take care of. I got two calls today for picking up a container. To be real honest with you, I'm done with it. These calls are going to go straight up to Peoria, and I'll send it to Valerie out of the Jacksonville office. So there's not a whole lot else we can do (other than) getting the information out to these people and trying to get our contract lived by."

GFL Environmental has acquired several smaller trash pickup providers in the area over the past few years, including Trash Queen and Area Disposal. Now its headquarters out of Peoria are the only providers in the area for residents of communities like Jacksonville to choose from. Jacksonville amended its agreement with GFL in December, settling on a new flat rate, which was an increase, to simplify the billing process. While the change was technically an increase, it was adjusted to the number of users in the city and rolled all distance and fuel fees into one, meaning all residents pay the same instead of some on the outskirts paying much higher rates.