South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Sunset Hills passes American Eagle Waste rates

Sunset+Hills+passes+American+Eagle+Waste+rates

The Sunset Hills Board of Aldermen approved rates Nov. 9 for the next five years for its trash service through American Eagle Waste. The company’s contract is up at the end of the year.

New rates start at $16.50 in 2022 and rise 50 cents each year for standard service and senior rates would increase to $15 a month from $14.45 in 2023 and remain there. 

Before contracting with American Eagle, Sunset Hills was the “Wild West” for trash services. Any resident could use any service they liked and complaints were common. City Engineer Bryson Baker said switching to American Eagle has reduced complaints by a lot and citizens compliment the company’s service often.

“I think they provide great service. We do get a lot of calls about how great they are. We have instances where people call, especially older folks, about how they will take their trash cans up to their garage, which a lot of places won’t do,” Baker said. “We had a gentleman that lost his wallet in the trash and American Eagle dumped out an entire truck, and went through an entire truck … and ended up finding his wallet.”

Baker said it is possible the city could find a lower rate through a larger company and the board could try to compare prices before approving anything. The consensus among the board was to retain American Eagle because of their great service and the fact that they go above and beyond in certain instances. 

Ward 2 Alderman Casey Wong asked to include requests with the approval that American Eagle set up its answering machine and website. The website is linked on the Sunset Hills site and Wong said any comment submitted through it wouldn’t be promptly answered. 

“It’s impossible to leave a voicemail because they don’t have their voicemail system set up,” Wong said. “If you have a scheduled pickup that doesn’t happen, you’re going to send an email into the box that’s not going to be answered promptly. These are basic business concerns, that everybody has voicemail, everybody has an active email, everybody responds promptly.”

Baker said he will ask that American Eagle set up a voicemail and use the email more often. The city will review the full contract in the future.

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