There were countywide complaints last winter, which saw record-breaking snow and substantial trash pickup delays.
This winter, Republic Services is asking residents to sign up for targeted call, text or email alerts.
Republic’s Municipal Sales and Government Affairs Manager Mark Sherwood said text alerts won’t be sent to everyone during storms, just specific neighborhoods.
“So this was a way to let everybody know who was affected, and not alarm everyone that wasn't affected,” Sherwood said.
Some neighborhoods are harder to service than others. At the Summit County Council meeting Nov. 8, Republic’s team gave the example of Summit Park, where steep terrain and high elevation pose challenges in the winter.
This winter, residents are also asked to take in their bins by 7 p.m. if the garbage trucks don’t come. Then put them back out by 7 a.m., and if the trucks still can’t make it, they’ll return the next regularly scheduled service day.
For trash, that’s one week, and for recycling, that’s every two weeks. Overflow bins may be provided in extreme cases.
Bad weather is unavoidable, but Republic hopes better communication will help avoid some frustration. The county's website has instructions to sign up for notifications.
Sherwood said about 11,500 households have already signed up for notifications.
Other communications efforts include the return of the “trash dash.” This season, the online dashboard will only show updates during extreme delays in specific neighborhoods.
It’s part of Republic’s effort to keep communication more targeted and utilize social media for general updates, not real-time service.
Visit summitcounty.info/republicupdates for more on how to get trash delay notifications. Visit trashdash.carrd.co/ to view the trash dash.
