HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. — A garbage company is paying Hernando County a big fine after not picking up trash from more than one thousand streets in just a month.
"It's frustrating when you can’t enjoy your yard of the smell of rotten food or flies all around you," said Jenna Howell when we spoke to her six months ago about Republic Services going weeks without picking up trash in her Ridge Manor neighborhood.
But she says since that story aired things have completely changed.
"It's amazing. They’ve been here every day, they have not missed a day," said Howell.
Although Howell has seen changes and we spoke to many people who are very happy with Republic Services, the county says they’re still missing streets.
In the month of February alone, 1,317 streets were missed.
The county sent Republic Services a letter saying the company breached their contract with the county by “chronic problems” and “missed street," fining the company $135,300 in damages.
Republic Services had until Tuesday to challenge the fine, but they didn’t. We reached out to Republic Services for a comment but did not hear back.
The trash company recently signed a seven-year contract extension with the county, but the county says if they don’t fix the problem for everyone, they’ll reassess the contract.
Howell says she’s thankful it’s better in her neighborhood.
"The whole neighborhood looks a lot better so we’re really grateful. If it wasn’t for you all I don’t think it would’ve made a difference," said Howell.
