There was a heated debate between the Emmaus Borough Council and J. P. Mascaro and Son’s Director of Sales Sam Augustine, at the Oct. 6 council meeting.

Augustine came to the borough meeting to discuss recent fines the company had received and to answer any questions council members may have regarding the current trash pick-up. He gave a short speech on how he has been in the business for 33 years, how Mascaro saved the borough a lot of money and how other municipalities rave about Mascaro’s service.

Augustine went on to criticize council on how Mascaro received two separate fines.

“I do not enjoy getting fined because I don’t think they’re valid,” Augustine argued. “I don’t think they’re under the spirit of the contract.”

Augustine said he received an email from Councilman Wesley Barrett noting, “you should put recycling in blue containers because on Google people put recycling in blue containers all the time, and that’s not true.” Augustine said it “really aggravates me because recycling is not put in bags, recycling is supposed to be loose. You don’t just send emails that I read and I try to respond to, and then you just try to tell me things that aren’t true.”

Augustine ended his speech by saying, “I’m coming here tonight in the spirit of cooperation. I’ll be willing to answer any of the questions you have and I want to go forward positive.”

Councilman Brian Holtzhafer told Augustine none of the council members were feeling good about the situation and questioned the way Augustine communicated with council.

Augustine countered right back and said he didn’t feel good about the situation because he had met with some members of the health and sanitation committee and then the company was fined on two occasions. “I was told, okay, that we were going to get a 24-hour cure period and then I received another fine last month.”

Borough Manager Shane Pepe jumped right into the argument stating the health and sanitation committee literally met with him two weeks ago to discuss the fines Mascaro had received. Pepe said they agreed at the meeting to forgive them of the fines and they would get reimbursed. Pepe said he didn’t understand why he was up there still discussing the fines.

Pepe continued to state Mascaro continues to make mistakes again missing two entire streets of recycling pick-up and picking up trash after 3 p.m. when the contract states they have to be done by 2 p.m.

“Listen, we’re trying to work with you but on the other hand this is the second time you’ve come to us in that tone. We are the customer; you’ve got to understand they’re the customer. We’re getting those complaints from those people out there,” Pepe said.

Augustine argued he has years of experience and he does not feel there is a spirit of cooperation in the borough. Also, he had called Pepe on a number of occasions and not received a return call.

Pepe countered by stating he has talked to Mascaro’s general manager on every one of those occasions, because he would rather talk to the director of operations then the director of sales.

Councilman Wesley Barrett jumped into the conversation to state Augustine misrepresented his email regarding the recycling. He said the original email was sent to Pepe, and it eventually got to Augustine because he was the person who was directed to respond to the situation.

Barrett said the email had to do with his recycling not being collected for the third time, and had nothing to do with the bags or type of recycling bin it had been collected in. Besides his recycling being missed three times, Barrett said he watched the garbage men “blatantly, blatantly without any question take the recycling out of the clearly marked recycling bin, look around and throw it right in the back of a regular trash can. That can’t happen and it’s not supposed to happen.”

Barrett said he recognizes there will always be problems but the way Augustine was handling the situation was “in an attacking manner. Your voice is stern and it’s attacking.”

Councilman Brent Labenberg joined the argument to state how unprofessional Augustine was handling the situation as well as his own personal experience with Mascaro.

He said maybe Augustine should leave his office and do “a little undercover boss” and watch the way his employees work because they are unprofessional. Labenberg says the trash cans are placed four feet in the street after they are emptied.

“It looks like crap when you drive through town and you see cans all in the street,” Labenberg said. He said he didn’t understand how the two companies before them could walk the trash cans to the curb and place them down, while their [Mascaro] company can’t seem to do it.

“I don’t care what you say about all the other municipalities that have you as a customer and what you flaunt as whatever you quoted saying excellent service. It’s not happening here. It’s very unprofessional.”

Augustine once again brought up the fines the company had received and Councilman Roy Anders was quick to comment. Anders was perplexed on to why Augustine kept bringing up the fines.

“We sat here, we discussed it and everything seemed fine,” Anders said. “As far as I’m concerned that was a closed case.”

Augustine said he received another fine a week after he had met with members of council. Pepe questioned why Augustine did not proceed to call the accounting department and ask about it. He said the borough levies those on previous months, so it was probably already in the accounting system.

Councilman Nathan Brown joined in the debate, and noted he was the only council member to vote against the hiring of Mascaro, due to the concerns he had received from residents regarding their past experiences with the company. Brown said other members of council wanted to give the company a second shot, so trash pick-up was awarded to Mascaro.

“I’ve heard sitting here now for the past 10 months Mascaro saying we’re gonna change, we’re gonna change, we’re gonna do it right. So far I haven’t seen that,” Brown said.

Brown said he needs to see them get it right, because he has no confidence in voting for an extension with them when the contract is up.

Pepe noted the day after trash pick-up, the borough always gets several calls complaining about the way the trash cans were put back, or how they never even got their trash picked up.

Augustine said he “wants to get those matters resolved. We are going to pick up the trash in the borough properly.”

After Augustine finished speaking, general manager for Mascaro Chris Caras spoke very briefly to council.

“I do take a lot of pride in what we do and that’s why I do feel responsible.” Caras went on to say he wants to make sure the borough gets the best service possible.

There was a resident in attendance who had originally come to the meeting to discuss his trash concerns. He had no idea Mascaro would be in attendance.

He noted his recycling had not been picked up for multiple weeks along his street. He also addressed Augustine’s complaint on recycling being put in bags. “You have no choice but to put recycling in a bag when it isn’t picked up on numerous occasions.”