MILFORD, Ohio — For residents at the Oakwood Apartments in Milford, trash often consumes their lives.
It's not by choice. Many residents said there are often piles of trash overflowing the dumpsters outside, seeping into the parking lot. Those dumpsters are hard to miss, too. They're just feet away from the front entrance of the complex.
We've covered their issues before. Back in January, we spoke to residents who said, at the time, their trash had gone months without being picked up.
We found the reason was that the property owner, Preservation Partners Management, had an outstanding bill of $4,000 due for trash services.
A short time after our story aired, the trash was cleaned up.
But, residents said, the problems didn't end there.
See why the trash pile returned and how residents feel about it in the video below:
This week, multiple people reached out to us to let us know the trash problem was back.
One resident sent the following photo on Monday:
We drove out there on Thursday to check it out and found the trash was, in fact, cleaned, but it had been a while.
We spoke to resident Hannah Thompson and asked how long it took for the trash to be cleaned.
“At least a month," Thompson said.
Thompson said it's embarrassing to live with piles of trash outside her front door. She said it's worse because she has two younger siblings that she has to watch out for.
She said the trash has also attracted some unwanted friends.
“I’ve seen opossums, raccoons, everything," Thompson said.
When we asked Thompson why it keeps happening, she pointed the finger at the property manager.
“She’s not paying (the bill), she hasn’t been," Thompson said.
Thompson also showed us other issues with the complex, such as three fire extinguishers in her building being outdated.
We tried to talk to the property manager on Thursday, but she wasn't there. The doors were closed with a sign that read "Office will be closed today due to audit."
However, it was unclear based on the sign who was conducting the audit.
We tried calling the number for the property manager and property owner, but no one answered.
“That’s what it does for everybody else," Thompson said.
As of Thursday evening, we still haven't heard back from either.
Republic Services, however, did respond to our questions about why the trash wasn't picked up until recently. They sent the following statement:
"Service to this location was suspended on August 15 due to nonpayment, and our initial outreach did not resolve the issue. The past-due balance was paid on September 2, and service resumed today."
Residents like Thompson said they aren't sure why the payments are overdue, however, and question why this keeps happening.
“I just want some decent maintenance people out here," said Thompson.
