Kristina Halvorson had to chuckle when she came across the section of St. Paul’s winter collection guide that says if a garbage or recycling truck “is not able to access your carts on an alley or street due to icy or heavy snow conditions, they will return within 24 hours to make a second attempt to collect.”

Halvorson, a resident of Hythe Street in St. Anthony Park, said Eureka Recycling has skipped collection on her privately-plowed alley for three weeks running.

“I have lived in St. Anthony Park for 20 years, and I’ve never been straight-up abandoned by trash or recycling pickup like this,” Halvorson said.

Across St. Paul and social media, complaints of skipped trash and recycling collection this winter are a mounting refrain. Eureka Recycling said that over the past three weeks, they’ve had to skip collection at least once throughout a fourth of their St. Paul routes.

A resident recently posted pictures to an East Side neighborhood Facebook page of trash bags surrounding an overflowing garbage cart, which he said had not been emptied in three weeks.

Elsewhere, residents say they’ve been told to put out extra recycling boxes after a skipped collection — only to find the excess recycling still there the next day.

RECORD SNOWS, BIG DELAYS

Why all the delays?

Call it the perfect storm of complications, including the fact that St. Paul does not plow residential alleys, leaving residents to do it on their own or contract a private plower. Public Works this year plans to study the prospect of instituting alley plowing after snow emergencies. Related Articles Minnesota Department of Revenue commissioner to step down

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Difficult weather conditions “have put some of the city’s protocols to the test these past two weeks in some parts of the city, but the haulers, both garbage and recycling, are working hard to get the missed collections handled as quickly as possible,” said Lisa Hiebert, a spokeswoman for St. Paul Public Works. “(Tuesday began) the third snow emergency in three weeks.”

When residents do have their alleys plowed, sometimes it’s by a small pickup truck with a blade, “and the ‘trough’ is often more narrow than our truck’s wheel base, making it unsafe to move through the alley,” said Kate Davenport, a co-president of Eureka Recycling, in an email.

“In many cases the alleys have been plowed, but then the side street is plowed and leaves a wall over the entrance that the trucks get stuck in,” Davenport said.

Other residents say they’ve been told it’s an insurance issue — the provider is concerned about liability from accidents.

What’s more, Eureka officials have noted that the city is responsible for at least minimal salting and sanding in alleys where trash and recycling trucks have been unable to complete collection for two consecutive weeks.

City officials, however, say back-to-back snowfalls and sub-zero temperatures followed by warming periods have complicated those plans, snowing over their efforts and putting their focus elsewhere.

With more than 21 inches of snowfall as of Wednesday morning, the month is shaping up to be the Twin Cities’ fourth snowiest February on record since at least 1893, according to the National Weather Service. And February is only half over.

“We do track all alleys that Eureka reports as inaccessible,” said Kris Hageman, the city’s recycling program manager, in an email to Halvorson on Tuesday. “We know that your alley has reached week 3. Our winter collection protocol has the city attempt to salt alleys that are missed 2x consecutively.”

The email continued: “Unfortunately, we were unable to salt last week in preparation for collections this Monday due to the snow and then cold temperatures Friday/Saturday. Salt is not effective below 10 degrees. We are planning to salt prior to your next collection. This has proven effective in the past.”

55 CREWS ON ARTERIAL STREETS

Overall, the city has had its hands full.

On Tuesday, St. Paul Public Works had more than 55 crews out plowing and salting main streets, or “arterials,” in advance of the snow emergency that began at 9 that night.

The city has tried to keep residents abreast of weather-related trash and recycling collection delays online at stpaul.gov/departments/public-works.

“A lot of the haulers did robo-calls or email alerts to notify residents of collection delays,” said Hiebert, who encourages residents to update their contact information with their hauler.

Eureka has directed residents to its customer service line — 651-222-7678 — and urged them to sign up for email alerts through its website, EurekaRecycling.org, which lists make-up collection dates. They’ve also rolled out a smart phone application. Residents can request street pickup if alleys are inaccessible.

If you don’t want to deal with alley pickups, you can request a permanent curbside pick up at https://t.co/C6eaP2Doke (5/) — Mitra Jalali Nelson ⚡️ (@mitrajnelson) February 13, 2019

“Next week only, we will accept up to four paper grocery bags of extra recycling placed outside of your cart,” reads the latest Eureka alert for Halvorson’s area.

Halvorson, however, said the last time she was instructed to put out extra boxes, she ended up carting them back inside after a recycling truck failed to collect them. Another neighbor said she’s got 16 extra boxes to unload.

ORGANIZED TRASH COLLECTION TO BLAME?

Some residents blame service delays in part on the city’s decision to switch from a free-market trash collection system to organized collection, which began Oct. 1.

Under the new system, every neighborhood is assigned a single hauler. As a result, residents who have been skipped by their trash hauler can’t simply threaten to switch to a different company.

Jon Jordan, a resident of Upper Afton Road, said the city indicated on its winter collection website that Waste Management would delay its Jan. 30 pickup by two days.

“But on Friday, they just decided not to collect at all,” said Jordan, in an email to a reporter at the time. “Trash for our Battle Creek neighborhood will not be picked up until Feb. 6.” Related Articles St. Paul district reports enrollment drop as pandemic moves school online

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“Complete BS!! There has been no real communication,” he added. “Over flowing trash cans are still sitting on the street. … Lived here since 1997. Never had the garbage delayed more than one day. A full week without service is completely unacceptable!”

Waste Management, which has been putting extra trucks on its routes to get caught up, finally completed the collection on Feb. 7, Jordan said Wednesday.