Another coronavirus infection within Greenwood’s Public Works Department has caused a delay in trash pickup.
The city employee infected with the virus is a trash truck driver, Mayor Carolyn McAdams said during Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
Because the sick employee must go into quarantine, the city now has only two drivers to pick up trash throughout the city, slowing the rate of removal. Normally the city would be able to pick up trash once a week, the mayor said.
Susan Bailey, director of public works, said it’s now taking her department five to six weeks to pick up trash for the entire city.
There are five trash routes throughout the city. During the last week of June and the first week of July, Public Works picked up trash on the first route, Bailey said. The second route was started Monday and should be completed by the end of this week, she said.
There are still three more routes left.
Another difficulty arising from staffing shortages is that Bailey has had to shuffle employees from her department to accompany trash truck drivers since two people are needed inside a vehicle. A welder and a shop mechanic have had to step outside of their normal job duties to accompany trash truck drivers, Bailey said.
The mayor said garbage — waste put in a city garbage can — is still being picked up weekly. Trash, on the other hand, includes outdoor debris, such as bags of dead leaves, tree limbs and other brush set along the curb to be picked up by the city.
•Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
