Solid Waste Message
Message from our Solid Waste Coordinator and Background:
I am Virginia Strohm the new Solid Waste Coordinator for Colfax County as of September.
First off, I would like to apologize for the situation with Solid Waste dumpsters and Roll-off's currently happening in Colfax County and assure you I am working with Tri State to get this taken care of.
I would like to give you a description of what is happening and has been happening the last 3 weeks. Please know this is not an excuse just an update so you are aware of what is happening.
- Tri State was recently purchased by new owners in November. The new owners along with employees are working to learn the operations for Colfax County along with other locations they service.
- The normal dumpster truck driver left Tri State as of December 13, 2022, with no notice and his back up driver left Tri State a little before him. So, the substitute drivers are not familiar with Colfax County and are working to learn the route and how to be prepared for our weather.
- Colfax County hired a Solid Waste Tech on December 16th, 2022. Tiana Romero. She just finished her training yesterday and will be on her own starting Monday. Her job discretion is to keep the areas around Colfax County dumpster and roll off sites clean. My goal for her is to try to visit each area 2x a week and if not for sure once a week. This will depend on the needs of each area. She will be doing this for all of Colfax County sites so 2x a week may not always be feasible.
Note: If customers can be mindful of how they use the dumpsters and roll offs that would help greatly.
- I understand that some dumpsters have been missed over the last 3 weeks as well as have not been picked up as often as they should be. There are 3 possible reasons for this. One could be due to the substitute drivers not having them on their map, two could just be human error, and three could be due to weather.
- I was able to speak with the new owner Ricardo yesterday. On Monday I will be asking Tiana to send all her pins to him so he can have a copy of each site and make sure they are on his driver’s maps. I also spoke with him about his drivers coming prepared with proper equipment for driving conditions.
- The Solid Waste bills that were just mailed out on December 29th, 2022, are for the people who did not pay for 2022. The bills for 2023 will be sent out the last week of March.
Note: the last three years customers were not charged late fees, late fees will be back in March. The only people that will be exempt from them will be people who have set up a monthly plan with me and are in good standing.
- Last the roll off that was placed at Black Lake was placed there without our contract being investigated. So please understand that during bad weather it will not be able to be picked up.
Message from the County Manager
As of this morning I have been on the telephone with Ricardo, the new owner of Tri-State who is out with his crews working on this situation. Three additional dumpsters were placed near the full ones in Taos Pines, and I was advised they would be emptying the dumpsters at the Black Lake Transfer Station and continuing to pick up trash.
As we work through this Solid Waste Crisis, I would ask everyone to work with the county and Tri-State in positive way to get this serious situation resolved and back on track. We are working with Tri-State to develop their data base on dumpster locations throughout Colfax County. I anticipate we will still have some challenges that will need to be addressed like pin-pointing all dumpster locations. Please communicate/advise us of dumpsters that need to be emptied and any other concerns you may have, and we will work with Tri-State to address all these issues. Please use our main number 575-445-9661. Virginia’s extension is 7703 or email.
We wish all of you a safe and happy new year and you have our assurance we will work through these issues together.
Sincerely and respectfully,
Monte Gore
Colfax County Manager
