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PORT ARTHUR — Port Arthur residents have expressed dismay over the past few weeks as garbage has piled up — waiting on the curb to be whisked away by city workers.

While delayed trash pickup is an annoyance to residents, it also is a public health issue.

The city’s garbage collection service has had trouble keeping up with its schedule and is sometimes days, or up to a week behind. This issue is not new. Port Arthur officials have been discussing how to get collection services back to its normal operations for more than a year, but as every month has passed, new issues have arisen, compounding into the current situation.

The main issue is that several trucks of the city’s fleet are out-of-commission because they need replacement parts, and Port Arthur has not been able to secure the parts due to nationwide supply-chain issues.

Out of the city’s 12 garbage trucks, only five are currently in operation, though four more are expected to come back online this week, according to a presentation from the city’s Tuesday council meeting.

But Port Arthur Mayor Thurman Bartie at a Tuesday news conference said that this issue requires multiple solutions — not just one thing can solve the problem.

“We are aggressively pursuing the repairs of our fleet of vehicles that we have for garbage collection,” Bartie said.

Those repairs include fixing some of the trucks’ diesel and hydraulic systems, the parts of which are hard to find.

“It’s supply and demand,” said Port Arthur City Manager Ron Burton. “Let me just give you one example. For hydraulic fuel hoses, we would have gone to Beaumont two months ago. Now, we have to go as far as the city of Houston to purchase (them).”

The next solution is one which has already produced results. Bartie said the city has secured a lease of one garbage truck that will be delivered next week.

Two more garbage trucks are being provided by Republic Services under a contract that began Tuesday.

“We are looking at a six-month period that we would actually lease these trucks to be sure that our garbage is picked up in a timely manner,” Bartie said.

The city also is increasing its collection schedule from four to six days — Monday through Saturday — to make up for days that lost due to broken trucks. Bartie said adding a seventh day may be a possibility if it is needed.

Bartie said the city is also in the process of modifying the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality landfill permit to allow the landfill to operate seven days a week and holidays to catch up on garbage disposal.

“There are several things that have to take place. We can’t just go out and start doing it,” Bartie said. “Because then we will be in total violation with what the state of Texas says we can do as far as handling garbage.”

Garbage collection hours will also be extended to “as long as there is daylight,” for the foreseeable future, Bartie said. He said the city will continue to monitor and alter the schedules, routes, etc. daily.

There’s also a shortage of heavy trash trucks in the city. Port Arthur has 10 heavy trash trucks, with seven currently operational.

“Bids are out as I speak to hire a company that can provide us four heavy trash trucks on an as needed basis with even less than a 24-hour request period,” Bartie said.

Bids will open on Feb. 2. Bartie said that this provision will allow the city to request and receive a truck in fewer than 24 hours should the city need them to prevent getting behind in the schedule again.

A new heavy trash truck was ordered by the city last fall and will be delivered by Jan. 22, Bartie said.

If all goes according to plan, Bartie said there should be between seven and nine trucks in operation by Friday.

“Hopefully, we can get through this week and by Saturday, get the entire city collected,” he said.

City staff is negotiating another contract with Piney Woods, a private contractor, to handle garbage collection for Sabine Pass and Pleasure Island.

The lack of operational trucks is not the only issue the city has to solve to resume normal garbage operations.

On Monday, the Port Arthur Health Department reported 46 new COVID cases for the city, two of whom are trash truck drivers who tested positive, meaning they have to quarantine for 14 days as well as anyone they may have come into contact with in the department, Burton said.

But he noted he’s not concerned about not having enough drivers for the trucks.

“We are working with Republic and we made it very clear to them as part of the contract that we are negotiating with them — you send your drivers with the vehicles, and we’ll pay for that as well,” Burton said. “And we’ll pay for an assistant so that they could learn the route much faster.”

Bartie said in a few months, people might bring up the budget cost of these solutions. Burton said that the council might be able to put some of the $27.6 million COVID relief funds towards this situation, including staff overtime since it is related to the pandemic.

“As long as we meet the guidelines,” Burton said. “We’ll make sure that it meets the criteria for expenditure.”

Bartie said the city will work with the solutions for six months, and if progress isn’t made, there will be a “come to Jesus” meeting to hold officials accountable and to go back to the drawing board.

“That is the most important thing that we want the citizens of Port Arthur to know, that we are standing together unified to implement a program that we believe is a workable solution to the problem that we have right now,” Bartie said.

Olivia Malick is the education reporter for The Beaumont Enterprise.