That smell north of the river? It’s Kansas City, failing in its trash collection duty

If you live in Kansas City north of the river, you probably noticed the smell first.

“Our trash is rotting in the sun,” said Kansas City Councilman Dan Fowler. He’s right: The city has received more than 5,000 complaints during the past two months about delayed trash pickup, mostly from homeowners in the Northland.

Trash pickup has been delayed for days, even weeks. It’s beyond unacceptable.

City Hall must quickly solve the problem by deploying additional city trucks to affected areas if necessary. It should also consider financial penalties against the private companies hired to collect the Northland’s garbage if the problem continues.

Uncollected trash is a menace — unsightly, smelly, an attraction for wild animals. It diminishes neighborhoods and poses a health hazard for humans.

But it’s more than that. Collecting garbage is a central function of government, like providing safe streets and drinkable water. Sparkling downtowns and gleaming airports are mere diversions if the streets are covered in trash.

In Kansas City, trash collection is particularly important because it’s paid for with tax dollars. While city forces do much of the work in the central part of town, a private firm is paid a hefty fee to collect trash in the northern and southern parts of Kansas City.

The private firm, WCA Waste Corporation, and subcontractor Jim’s Disposal Service must be held accountable for the delays.

The city blames the failure to pick up trash on time on a combination of factors: heat, equipment problems, a lack of employees, the July 4th holiday, even the summer trash “amnesty” program that allows residents additional bags of garbage at the curb without paying an extra fee.

But almost all of those issues were foreseeable. It gets hot in Kansas City in July. Trash amnesty week is scheduled months in advance. The 4th of July comes every year.

And Kansas City knows from long experience that trash collection in the summer is difficult. In 2016, complaints exploded after trash pickup was missed south of 63rd Street.

The city says extra crews have recently been deployed in the Northland, but this problem has to be fixed permanently.

The city manager should make timely trash removal a top priority. That could mean using more city trash collectors, finding a new private contractor, or penalizing the contractor now doing the work.

It may cost more tax money. A city that can find money for an arts festival, though, should have enough to collect the trash.

Council members say they’re concerned. A meeting has been called for Tuesday to discuss trash removal north of the river. Residents are asked to call 311 if they spot a problem with garbage.

But meetings and promises won’t make it safer in Northland neighborhoods or ease the smell of rotting trash. Kansas City has promised to pick up its residents’ garbage, and it has broken that promise.

The problem won’t be solved until lingering trash is gone, and the trucks are once again on a consistent schedule.