The messy switch from one trash hauler to another that was supposed to have been effective Oct. 1 in most of Indian River County got even messier last week with many Indian River Shores residents receiving erroneous bills and the town talking litigation.

Waste Management (WM) took over trash collection in all unincorporated areas of Indian River County from the previous contractor, Republic Services, as of Oct. 1 and the Town of Indian River Shores decided to join the rest of the county to save money for its residents.

The switch does not affect addresses within the municipal limits of the cities of Vero Beach, Sebastian and Fellsmere and the Town of Orchid, which are sticking with their current arrangements.

Even though Republic stopped picking up all garbage and recycling materials after Sept. 30, many residents in Indian River Shores appear to have received new bills from Republic for current service as if nothing had happened.

People who had signed up for online bill pay got a notice that their monthly online payment of $45.49 for service in October was now due and would soon be charged against whatever bank checking account or credit card was on file with the company.

Some not signed up for online pay had received physical bills for October in the mail even earlier – to account for delays in processing mailed payment checks – and many of those customers now apparently are being hit with “late charges” of about $9.

Worse, some apparently were reported to the main credit bureaus as delinquent, late payers, and could suffer the consequences of downgraded credit scores.

“The situation is absolutely outrageous,” said Shores Vice Mayor Bob Auwaerter. “You can’t even talk to anyone at Republic locally – we’re dealing with someone at their regional offices in Orlando. They say it’s a computer error and they say they’ll try to correct it, but we haven’t seen any sign of it yet.”

Auwaerter, a retired Vanguard executive who specializes in financial and budget matters on the Town Council, said he’s tired of getting the run-around from Republic and he asked Town Manager Jim Harpring at the last town council meeting to look into filing a lawsuit against Republic Services immediately seeking redress and compensation.

The switch from Republic to WM is supposed to save single-family homes in the area about $30 a month, from more than $44 per month previously billed directly by the contractor to the resident.  The new lower trash fee will be added as a one-time yearly payment of $179.47 to residents’ property tax bill payable to the town.

Condominium complexes in the covered area have negotiated their own arrangements with WM and most appear to be happy with the savings they are supposed to be getting in the future. However, at one condominium building where WM had promised to keep pickup schedules the same as under the previous contractor, recycling bins were not emptied as promised last week and the bins sat outside waiting for pickup all weekend.

WM has reduced the frequency of trash pickups from twice to once per week, Mondays at single-family homes, and will at the same time pick up yard waste and recycling materials to be put at curbside in separate colored 95-gallon bins – gray for solid waste, brown for yard waste and blue for recycling.

There had already been considerable confusion in the switch over who was supposed to pick up the old blue Republic bins, now being replaced by new WM bins of different colors. Residents said they got the run-around when they tried to get answers as to who would pick up the now-obsolete bins and when.

Some residents got so frustrated having to look at the old bins at curbside in front of their homes for weeks that they wheeled them out to the side of the highway A1A.

“This whole transition has been very badly managed,” said one Indian River Shores resident.