Just Right Trucking will soon assume the responsibility of garbage collection services in St. Croix neighborhoods, the V.I. Waste Management Authority announced Wednesday. The authority called the move “part of its ongoing efforts to provide efficient and reliable services to residents of the U.S. Virgin Islands.”
According to a WMA press release, the new contractor will take over garbage collection in the Ginger Thomas, Sunny Acres, Diamond, Strawberry, Strawberry Hill, Diamond Ruby, Ruby, Mary’s Fancy, Castle Coakley, Peter’s Rest, Sion Hill, Tan Tan Terrace, Sion Farm, south Rattan, Constitution Hill, Anna’s Hope, Herman Hill, Catherine’s Rest, Rosegate, Humbug Veteran’s Land, Tamarind, Cane Garden and Work and Rest neighborhoods.
Residents can direct questions about trash services to Collection Manager Michael Nathaniel at 340-474-7683 or mnathaniel@viwma.org. Questions can also be sent to communications@viwma.org. The Waste Management Authority is asking residents to contact them if trash pickup is not occurring in their neighborhood.
The change comes after the authority’s previous garbage hauler — Bates Trucking — announced that it would discontinue garbage collection for WMA on Dec. 31, 2024, due to continued nonpayment. On Wednesday, owner James Bates told the Source that the Virgin Islands government still owes him “close to $2 million” for the work his company performed.
Bates said Waste Management asked him last year to continue services while the authority awaited a tranche of funding slated to come in November. When that didn’t happen, he said he was told that the authority was having trouble making payroll for its own employees.
“And I said, ‘What?’ That was like a wake-up call for me. If you can’t be getting your own deal to keep your staff going, how are you going to pay me,” he said. In the end, he said he was paid $100,000, and he made the decision not to stay in bed with the authority or the V.I. Management and Budget Office for another year. “Then I wouldn’t be able to pay my regular employees. That’s why I made the decision that December 31 is my last day.”
A Waste Management spokesperson confirmed that the authority is waiting for its allotment but did not know how much was received and how much WMA has yet to receive. The Source sent a list of questions to WMA but did not receive a response by press time. Questions included: when will garbage collection start and how often will pickups be; how much of the authority’s allotment was received and how much is expected; and how much does the Waste Management Authority owe to its vendors.
Attempts to reach a Government House spokesperson by phone were unsuccessful, and questions about the status of the authority’s allotment sent by text and email did not receive a response.
Leadership from Waste Management has repeatedly told lawmakers that annual funding allocations fall dramatically short of what the authority requires for solid waste and wastewater collection and disposal and treatment services. During an August 2023 budget hearing, then-Executive Director Roger Merritt Jr. put that cost at more than $50 million per year. At the time, Merritt said WMA spent $3.6 million per year alone on garbage collection for more than 13,225 St. Croix homes, forcing the authority to purchase four of its own garbage trucks for $1.2 million because the cost of doing so exceeded contractors’ monthly costs. The move, he said, was supposed to save the authority more than $4 million per year.
During a budget hearing last June, Merritt again testified that the nearly $44.5 million in appropriations — plus $3.2 million in generated income — would not cover the authority’s costs. Merritt also acknowledged during that hearing that his contract had not been renewed. Shortly afterward, in early July, approximately 87 Waste Management Authority workers across the territory voted to authorize a strike amid stalled negotiations and unsatisfactory proposals to renegotiate a contract that expired in 2019.
