‘We want to get back to twice a week’: City of Amarillo continues to see a staffing shortage with its residential trash collection

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - It’s been about a month since the City of Amarillo implemented new procedures for its residential trash pick up services.

Last month, residential collections went from twice a week to now only once a week, the city blaming staffing shortages.

The COA Public Works Department says after making this change, it has seen less complaints coming in about trash not being picked up.

With the amount of staff the department has it says right now, twice a week collections are not possible.

To reach full capacity for staffing, the city needs 42 CDL drivers and it currently has 21.

The public works department says it is spending 75 percent of its time working to solve the problem.

“There’s a ton of work that’s going on not only in the way that we’re recruiting, but also on our pay scales, we want to get the pay up for those drivers and that’s fixing to happen in probably the next week or two,” said Hooper.

“People are using them, in fact, there were some we put out the first day and they were half full by the end of the day, we know they are being effective and people are using them,” said Hooper.

Some residents say they are still facing some problems with less collection.

“On a lot of the local Facebook groups, you’ll notice people asking, ‘hey does anyone have an empty dumpster down the street? Is it okay if I dump stuff there?’ Or worst-case scenario where stuff is just getting dumped and left by the side of the dumpster and not picked up and leading to more trash being blown around and things of that nature,’ said Ryan Bryant, heritage hills resident.

If you have a CDL and want to work for the city it also asks you to contact the department.

For more information, call (806) 378-6813.

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