Roger Hanna unloads his family's household garbage at the regional landfill on Eskimo Hill Road in central Stafford. dce Visit the Photo Place

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Stafford trash piling up

Many rural Stafford residents frustrated by lack of reliable trash pickup

By RUTH FINCH

Date published: 7/5/2004

By RUTH FINCH

Bert Fulford of Stafford County has tried three separate trash services in the past year.

One company gave him sporadic, unreliable service. Another abruptly stopped picking up his garbage.

And last week, a third send him a letter stating that they were discontinuing routes in his area of the county.

There's only one residential trash-hauler in Stafford that Fulford hasn't tried. And that's only because he can't get in contact with the company.

That leaves only one alternative for Fulford and some of his neighbors.

"We may have to carry it on our own for a few days," he said.

More Stafford residents may have to start doing the same now that one company has dropped about 400 to 500 customers on rural pickup routes, and another two apparently have stopped picking up altogether.

It's inconvenient, Fulford said, because he doesn't have a truck and doesn't relish the idea of hauling his stinky, dirty trash in his clean, new Mazda van.

Supervisor Gary Snellings, who represents many of those affected in the Hartwood area, said earlier this week that he received a dozen calls in less than 24 hours from constituents complaining about the lack of trash service.

He said he is going to bring up the issue when the Board of Supervisors next meets, on July 13. And he's going to start by asking his colleagues to reconsider an ordinance passed in April that prohibits residential trash pickup until after 6:30 a.m.

"I think we need to get out of regulating private enterprise," Snellings said.

That ordinance is what prompted Shifflett's Trash Service to drop Fulford from its route, said the company's owner, Eugene "Bubba" Shifflett.

"We used to leave the yard at 3:30, quarter to 4 in the morning," he said. "Being out there without the traffic, you can get a whole lot more people picked up and out of the way than you can later in the morning."

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Date published: 7/5/2004