CLEVELAND — Alex Luka and his neighbor Alex Holt still can't figure out why the City of Cleveland suddenly stopped providing trash pick-up along their neighborhood of row houses located off of Chester Avenue.
Holt, who has owned his unit since 2018, told News 5 the city has been collecting trash in his neighborhood without hesitation for the past six years, and then stopped service in early February without any warning or explanation.
“It’s frustrating, I had to call several offices around the city, a lot of people are quite pleasant, but at the end of the day I still have the trash," Holt said. “This is three weeks without a pick-up, so it’s definitely been an accumulation, not just with me but with several other of these other units.”
Holt said he just doesn't understand the lack of communication or outreach when it comes to such an important city service.
“We don’t know, no one has ever notified us until we contacted you and made the calls, and hopefully it’s going to be resolved soon," Holt said. “We put a lot of pride into this small neighborhood, it’s a very unique place, but on Chester Avenue there’s a lot of litter that I have to pick-up on a daily basis, so not having the city pick up the bags, obviously that’s a main source of frustration when you try to stay on top and beautify the neighborhood.”
Luka has rented out his unit through Airbnb for years and said if the city wanted to now charge his neighborhood for trash removal, he believes the city should have made that clear to property owners on his street.
“Next week I have people coming from Belgium and I would hate for them to see tires and this kind of garbage, because that would be their memory of Cleveland," Luka said. “I went to school here when I was a kid and the Cleveland Arena was block away and never did we have a problem until recently. I'll be glad to pay whatever it is monthly just to keep things going, but I would like it if they could clean up too.”
Terrell Pruitt, Commissioner of the Division of Waste Collection and Disposal for the City of Cleveland, quickly responded to News 5 and said there should have been better communication in this case. Pruitt pledged to have the stockpile of trash picked up on March 12, and promised all property owners would be contacted in the coming days.
"It's an unfortunate situation, it sounds like a misunderstanding," Pruitt said. “If they’re interested in being part of our collection system, we’re more than happy to have them. They will issue them City of Cleveland carts, one for trash and one for recycling, and we’ll begin service the following week.”
Pruitt said Cleveland residents should feel free to contact the Cleveland Division of Waste Collection & Recycling through its webpage or call directly at 216-664-3719. Cleveland residents with city services concerns can also call the Cleveland 3-1-1 system to get to the right department or contact their council member. Pruitt also offered the city 2024 Waste Collection Guide as a resource.
Meanwhile, Holt can only hope his trash troubles will soon be coming to an end.
“The frustration is there was no notice, maybe if we had some direct notice, maybe a temporary solution in the meantime," Holt said. “We don’t know, no one has ever notified us until we contacted you and made the calls, hopefully it’s going to be resolved soon.”
News 5 will follow through on this developing story.
