TAVARES, Fla. — In Lake County residents said trash pickup has been anything but predictable. A Tavares resident talks about the increased delays and even missed collections over the past few months.

Shea Cutliff moved to Lake County five years ago.

"I loved Lake County for the fact that it was a clean county," said Cutliff. But recently that hasn’t been the reality. "When it’s a service that you pay for it lowkey makes you angry," said Cutliff. 

She’s talking trash pick-up. Something she hasn’t seen much of lately. Now Shea and her neighbors are paying the price.

"You have a municipality, like ours, that charges fines to our HOA for having trash that’s not picked up properly. Now we’re looking at possibly having to raise HOA fees on people who have intentionally moved to an area because they could afford it, now you’re making the area unaffordable," said Cutliff. 

Spectrum News asked Lake County what's going on:

"There have been delays throughout Lake County for yard, vegetative, and solid waste pickup. Lake County has received complaints about these missed collections from customers. The delays in collection are due to several causes, including two back-to-back storms and an unusually rapid transition to a new hauler during Hurricane Ian. The delays are primarily in the district impacted by the hauler transition, which is in northeast Lake County. This area is especially rural and hard to navigate. The hauler is working to obtain the correct equipment for the area’s unpaved roads and ascertain the locations of more remote properties."

In response to these interruptions, the County has implemented several key measures to assist customers.

• The County has reached out to municipal partners for supplemental assistance with curbside collection
• A phone bank has been set up to help callers quickly report missed pickups
• We continue to communicate regularly with the contracted haulers and impose fines for delays

Customers are encouraged to report issues to 352-343-3776 or by emailing garbagecollection@lakecountyfl.gov.

But Cutliff finds the whole situation hard to believe. "Lets be fair, lets be honest, lets be candid in this area a lot of services aren’t available to us. So the few services that are available to us i.e. trash pick up should be run very effectively. I don’t understand why two storms in Florida would be a big issue," said Cutliff.