UPSHUR COUNTY — Some Upshur residents are upset with a waste collection company they say hasn’t collected garbage for weeks, but a company representative said help is on the way.

Mountain State Waste has been working the past two days on collecting trash for customers in Upshur County who were missed in past weeks due to extreme wintry weather, Director of Operations Jeff Harvey told The Inter-Mountain Friday.

Multiple Upshur County community members have recently complained that their garbage has not been picked up by Mountain State Waste in four to five weeks. Harvey said the recent rough weather was the main reason for delays throughout the state.

“There’s been some areas we’ve struggled with from a weather standpoint,” Harvey said. “We are actually out in those areas today and tomorrow, trying to get some of the areas that haven’t been passable, trying to get those picked up.”

Harvey said that, as the weather has gotten better, the company has been going back to collect on missed garbage in those areas. Mountain State Waste anticipates being caught up on pick-ups and back on schedule by next week, he said.

When asked if the current rain and flood conditions might hinder these efforts, Harvey said officials were trying to balance pick-ups and community safety. Upshur County was under a Flood Warning from the National Weather Service Friday.

“We’ve really been trying to balance between getting it picked up and community safety,” Harvey said. “You know, with some of the ice, freezing and stuff like that. Especially with some of the rural roads, we’ve had issues navigating and not being able to get up.”

Some members of the community in Upshur have called on Mountain State Waste to provide credit discounts for the weeks missed.

“Mountain State Waste applies a fuel surcharge to all of our accounts,” Roberta Hatcher, a Upshur County resident, said in a social media post. “We deserve at least a credit for one month of that since they have not used any fuel for our routes in the last five weeks.”

When asked about credit for those who have not had their garbage picked up, Harvey repeated that crews were making their way to every location and that Mountain State Waste was collecting all the garbage once they got there. He also stated that trash pickup is a monthly service for customers.

Mountain State Waste also set up several “Alternative Collection Opportunities” around the state on Jan. 25 to help those who were missed due to the weather. Upshur residents were given the opportunity to drop off their garbage from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. “at the wide spot in front of the IGA” in Rock Cave. Harvey said that a “lot of folks… utilized that.”

He added that officials will not be offering the “Alternative Collection Opportunities” again as Mountain State Waste was “pretty much caught up” and reiterated that they plan to return to their regular schedule of pick-ups next week.