LAPLACE — The pesky dilemma of what exactly defines garbage that Metro Service Group will pick up continues to be a perplexity, especially among the parish residents.

St. John the Baptist Parish President Natalie Robottom recently told Parish Council members that Metro is following guidelines outlined in the contract that it pick up two cubic yards of bulky waste once a week on the second collection day.

Robottom pointed out two cubic yards of waste amounts to four residential garbage cans.

However, the problem persists of not all of the waste being picked up and at times the parish is having to go back to collect the remaining trash.

Parish Councilman Larry Snyder said “we may have to start thinking out of the box and see what we can do for our people.”

Contributing to the problem, parish leaders said, are contractors who are not picking up all of their debris once a job is complete.

“It’s not a bad idea to be proactive,” Robottom said, “but we don’t want to pick up after the contractors. They know better. That is part of their charge (to their clients).”

Educating the public is also critical, Councilwoman Julia Remondet said, adding she recently saw one family put an entire part of a structure that was torn down on the street.

In other business, Robottom also recently said a portion of the BP Oil Spill penalties awarded to the parish would go toward helping fund the massive $3.8 million Lake Pontchartrain Shoreline Protection project.

The parish is anticipating receiving nearly $465,000, which will be used toward the match required to fund and design the construction of the flood protection project.

— By Richard Meek