ST. LOUIS – A south St. Louis resident has been struggling to get a new city garbage dumpster for nearly a year. Diana Yenne says she’s just run into brick walls.

”There’s this big hole in the bottom of the dumpster, and trash has been spilling out through the alley when it gets emptied,” said Yenne. “It attracts rats, mice, feral cats, and other wildlife. It causes mosquitoes and stuff back here, and there’s an odor.”  

She’s been calling the City of St. Louis since last October. Still, no luck.

She called the Your Paid For It team when she couldn’t get the refuse department moving.

”I can’t even walk out my back door and put trash in my dumpster because if I do, it’s going to be spilled all over the ground,” said Yenne.

Finally, she called the You Paid For It Team for help. Even though she had already reached out to her alderwoman, Cara Spencer, FOX 2 decided to give her a call.

Spencer says of the situation, “I reached back out and reiterated my request to get that dumpster replaced, and I spoke directly to the refuse commissioner. They deployed the street department boon truck to make sure we could get this dumpster replaced. We’ve got to get our departments the tools they need to do their job.”

She says it’s not the Refuse Department’s fault that they can’t do more.

“The refuse department is so short-staffed, and the fact that our boon truck that we used to replace these things has been in the shop since January is crazy,” said Spencer. “I can’t blame our refuse department. They’re working weekends and nights, these guys.”

Spencer adds that the department is also short of resources needed for operations. When she last spoke to the refuse commissioner, the department had just completed 24 of the city’s 57 routes. Not even half of the city’s routes were taken care of that day.

“That’s a shortage of drivers, and it’s a function of so many of our vehicles being in the shop,” said Spencer.

Eventually, they dealt with Yenne’s problem.

“It’s nice to walk out my back door and have a dumpster that’s functioning and not turned on its side, so it’s great,” said Yenne. “Your word is what got us a new dumpster, so I’m very grateful for you,” she told FOX 2’s Elliott Davis.