‘They are failing to deliver:’ St. Johns County neighbors furious over trash troubles

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — We are just hours away from fixing trash troubles that have St. Johns neighbors furious. For two weeks, neighbors have complained about late pickups.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

And once again, that same company failed to meet their pick-up time, Thursday.

[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]

While some are understanding and giving them grace, others said they want to see some change.

“About two days -- it smelled pretty bad,” Averi Vickers said. “And those two days felt very long.”

Rebecca Vickers and her daughter, Averi, are among the hundreds affected by the trash troubles in St. Johns County.

“It’s pretty frustrating, I mean it’s trash and you’re paying for it and it’s a service and you want it done right,” Rebecca said.

They said the delays and sloppy service created a stench in their area for days.

“It smelled really bad,” Averi said. “It was not good. Whenever it rained, it was quite irritating because it was like really smelly outside.”

RELATED STORY: St. Johns County gives update on missed trash pickups

This all started Aug. 1 when FCC Environmental took over services for more than a 100,000 customers. The company signed a seven-year, $28 million contract with St. Johns County.

“FCC Environmental is not meeting the performance standards we negotiated and expect, and they are failing to deliver the level of service they are contractually obligated to deliver,” Director of Public Works Greg Caldwell said.

County leaders posted this update, Thursday, after apologizing to neighbors Wednesday.

That sparked a lot of conversation online, many asking why the county chose this new hauler over the two previous ones.

Caldwell says they were the best option at the time.

“FCC Environmental was selected as the highest ranked bidder based on a comprehensive review of their qualifications, costs, and reference checks,” Caldwell said.

RELATED STORY: New trash hauler has 7 days to fix service in St. Johns County or they will be dropped

Now, the county is holding FCC accountable to an improvement plan.

County road and bridge staff have spent over 2,000 hours to help fix the missed pickups, and FCC will have to pay for that.

Friday, the county will decide whether to keep them or move on.

“I don’t think they know quite what they’re doing yet,” Rebecca said. “Maybe we give grace and hope that next week goes much better.”

Action News Jax Annette Gutierrez reached out to an FCC spokesperson who said they want to wait until tomorrow to comment on the matter saying, St. Johns is their number one priority.

FCC staff members were even having emergency meetings after hours, Thursday night.

[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]

Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.