Allen Park flooding trash still sits on curbs waiting to be picked up

ALLEN PARK, Mich. (FOX 2) - Every time residents leave their houses in Allen Park, they see a constant reminder of the May 1 floods outside their door.

"It will be two weeks on Wednesday," said Rob, a resident. "I am about ready to start pushing it in the street. It’s ridiculous. You drive around the city and it's everywhere."

The items sit on curbs block by block, rotting away - while gnawing on the nerves of those surrounded by it. 

"(My neighbor) saw scrappers down the street and he started yelling at them, trying to get rid of them," Rob said. "And he got his orange paint out and started spraying everyone's scrap."

Allen Park Mayor William Matakas says 1,000 residents reported having 18 inches of water in their basement at some point during the flood - which adds up to a lot of garbage. 

"It's a mess and it's dangerous out there and it actually becomes a health hazard for the people at a certain point," Matakas said. "We want to get things cleaned up and as back to normal as we can."

Matakas says he is well aware of the frustrations felt by many still waiting to get their trash picked up and thankful to those who are patient. 

"I think the city is doing the best they can," said Chris Mars. "Advance Disposal is only one company and they got the whole Downriver community to deal with."

The mayor says the waste pickup company Advance Disposal simply can’t handle the amount of garbage all at once. The city is now using its own trucks to help. 

"We're using a skid loader that can pick this stuff up, put it into our dump truck put it in dumpsters," said Matakas.

"The mayor says one thing that is slowing the process down is people taking advantage of the additional pick up by putting out trash to the curb so when the trucks come out they are picking up residents' extra trash as well.

"It just slows us down," he said. "The more we have to pick up that is unnecessary, the slower it is to get to the houses."

On Tuesday he says the city will look into hiring addition waste management trucks from the company Green For Life all with the intention of meeting a self-imposed deadline of Saturday, May 18th.