'It just sits there': Inside Coventry's trash meltdown, and what the town is doing about it
COVENTRY – Go to any neighborhood here these days and you will hear a lot of trash talk.
Trash, recycling and yard waste collection: All have been delayed at varying times much of this past year as town officials struggle to maintain a functioning fleet of garbage trucks to pick up the refuse of 35,000 residents spread over 65 square miles.
The delays have been the talk of the town.
“It’s a big problem, and it’s not just me,” said Janice Papa, who has lived on Coventry Drive since the 1980s. “I’m paying my taxes on time, all the time – and all I need is trash pickup. Yard waste pickup is the worst,” Papa added.
Papa’s recycling and yard waste barrels were overflowing and had been on the curb in front of her ranch for weeks when The Hummel Report spoke with her in mid-June. It’s a common complaint: that pickup has been erratic and residents aren’t sure whether to leave their barrels on the street for lengthy periods of time or bring them back up the driveway.
The town’s primary form of communication has been the Public Works Department’s Facebook page, which has prompted some spirited online discussions.
“If I knew they weren’t going to pick it up, I’d keep it closer to the house,” said Tyler Albert, of Helen Avenue. “But I don’t want to get missed. The communication [from the town] is marginal at best. People can deal with situations as long as they’re being informed properly, but it’s not been very good.”
So what’s going on?
Coventry is one of only four communities in the state that still pick up their trash with town employees and their own vehicles; the rest contract out to private companies.
For months, four trucks in Coventry’s nine-vehicle fleet have been out of service. Three trucks broke down and are waiting for difficult-to-get parts, and one was totaled in an accident, according to Town Manager Daniel Parrillo. That has forced the town to rent a truck at a cost of $11,000 a month.
“We never have more than six or seven out of the nine working,” said Parrillo, who became manager in early 2023.
Those answering the phones at Town Hall have taken the brunt of the frustration.
“’I want to come dump it in your office, I want to dump it on the front lawn of front town hall,’” Parrillo recalls some callers saying.
The town, for the most part, has made its weekly garbage pickup the priority and picked up trash on time. The price: delayed pickup of recycling and yard waste.
Trash problems are a decade in the making
The troubled trash collection has been a decade in the making.
The Town Council in 2015 voted to buy nine new automated trucks, but spread the payment out over 20 years. Parrillo said it was a head-scratching decision, since the trucks have a life expectancy of anywhere from eight to 12 years.
When the Council approved purchasing the trucks on Feb. 9, 2015, it also pledged to budget $150,000 a year so it could purchase a new truck every three years to replace aging vehicles. Parrillo said a new truck costs around $400,000.
But subsequent Councils never put money aside for replacement.
“We ran with these nine trucks, with no policy in place to replace any of them,” Parrillo said in an interview this week with The Hummel Report. “So here we are, nine years later, the trucks are all starting to fall apart, having major issues. There’s no fund to purchase new ones, prior to this year.”
Hillary Lima was elected to the council in a special election in 2021 and took over as Council president in 2022.
“In my opinion, that was a line item that was either forgotten about, or, more likely, Coventry was a town that had financial town meetings and budget referendums,” she said.
“I guarantee you when they were looking to get any budget passed … and put out the smallest budget increase possible, [vehicle replacement funding] was something that was probably first up on the chopping block,” Lima added.
Parrillo said what’s even harder to swallow: The town still owes $1.4 million on the bond it took out in 2015 to pay for the nine trucks.
Lima said the town has purchased several new trucks and, going forward, will set aside money for replacement, but the vehicles won’t arrive until early next year because of supply chain issues.
“That’s the best we can do right now,” Lima said. “It was going to take nearly two years for them to come in. Now we’ve gotten bumped up the list to January.”
Residents frustrated by inconvenient hours, poor communication
In the short term, public works crews have been working longer hours, and the town temporarily extended its hours at the transfer station on Flat River Road next to Town Hall earlier this month, staying open until 7 p.m. and on a couple of Saturdays. But many residents we spoke with said the regular hours, which end at 3 p.m. during the week, are not customer-friendly for those who work during the day.
Parrillo said the town is exploring adjusting the hours permanently.
But the transfer station, which accepts recycling and yard waste, is not an attractive option for some.
“I’m 70 years old and I pay good taxes,” Papa said. “I don’t want to bring it to the transfer station.”
Matt Walsh, who has lived in Coventry for the last decade, unloaded an SUV full of recyclables at the transfer station one day earlier this month.
“We have a small amount backed up, but right now it isn’t terrible.” Walsh said. ”I heard some people haven’t had it picked up in two weeks. We’ve never gone more than one week.”
Yard waste pickup, he added, has been hit or miss.
“I’ve had yard waste sit for almost a month,” he said.
Papa said it’s particularly aggravating because she spent $80 on a special blue barrel from the town to hold yard waste and it has sat on the street in front of her house for months.
“They don’t touch the barrel. It just sits there,” she said. “To me, buying the barrel, I thought I did them a favor. They don’t have to pick up gross bags.”
Some say their brown leaf bags have been on the street so long they have fallen apart, and the yard waste needs to be rebagged.
Taking the fight to social media
Then there’s the town’s communication. The Facebook pages update residents, but at one point the comment section was disabled. And Albert said one post seemed to blame residents for putting items in the trash that may have broken the trucks.
“I don’t understand why [the trucks] are breaking,” Albert said. “Other towns have trash trucks too. Why are they not in the same situation we are? The communication is marginal at best. People can deal with situations as long as they’re being informed properly, but it’s not been very good.”
Papa added: “Somebody’s got to figure out how to get this under control. There are people who get paid to do this, and they’re not doing it right.”
Coventry has had a confluence of problems beyond the trash recently: school funding, sewers, the pension system and, most recently, a plan to purchase Johnson’s Pond. Some residents want to know why the town has money to buy the pond but can’t pick up the trash.
“They’ve got money that they say they want to buy Johnson’s Pond back, but we can’t have trash trucks. And we just had a layoff of school employees,” Albert said.
Parrillo said the trash problem is not a money issue right now.
“I’ve told [people] we’re doing both. We’re addressing the trash and recycling issue and we’re trying to condemn Johnson’s Pond. It’s the equipment. If we get it fixed, it won’t be an issue.”
'Paying the price now for a lack of accountability'
Lima, the Council president, said she understands why people are angry.
“I just get really bothered with this issue because, to me, trash and recycling pickup is one of the most front-facing services a municipality provides, and if we can’t get that right, it doesn’t sit well with me,” she said. “Unfortunately, we have to go through the pains of supply chain issues still post-pandemic in terms of getting the apparatus and other parts.”
Lima said it’s not just trash. For years the town never set aside money to repave its roads.
“The town has 65 square miles and no dedicated fund for the roads,” she said. “That’s shameful.”
The town has created a program called Pave It Forward, using some federal rescue funds to get it going and grant money from the state.
But right now, trash and recycling are at the top of the priority list. Parillo said the town is almost caught up with recyclables. But it is one truck breakdown away from another delayed collection. And he couldn’t give a timetable for yard waste.
“We’re paying the price now for a lack of accountability with previous councils. It also comes down to that the public has accountability, too, because they’re voting on the budgets,” Lima said. “Trash is something you don’t think about getting picked up. It just gets picked up. Until something like this happens, then you realize the importance of the infrastructure of your local government.”
The Hummel Report is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that relies, in part, on donations. For more information, go to HummelReport.org. Reach Jim at Jim@HummelReport.org.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Coventry's trash and recycling problem is a decade in the making
