Sea Coast Disposal bills for the next quarter are due as the company continues to work through some service issues.

Councilman Greg Bjelke has asked a representative from Sea Coast to attend the April 7 city council meeting. Bjelke said common issues in his ward include garbage not being collected and trouble contacting Sea Coast.

“I’m just as frustrated as others trying to get information and can’t get it,” Bjelke said. “Not being able to reach somebody when they have a home office here is very frustrating.”

Sea Coast president Matthew Brigance said the issues are related to new staff and the volume of customers who waited until after the deadline to register for service.

“Everybody’s first month on the job is always a challenge,” Brigance said.

Approximately one-third of Selma residents waited until after the cutoff date to sign up for service, according to Brigance.

“When a third of the customers sign up after the cutoff period, setting up routing schedules is just a challenge when we weren’t able to prepare for that,” Brigance said. “It’s pretty time consuming to do after the fact.”

Brigance said the company has already taken the initiative and hired several new employees, including an additional manager to help with the workload.

“We’re spending additional capital and manpower,” Brigance said. “I think that things will be straightened out very, very soon.”

Bjelke said the April 7 council meeting would be a time for the city and Sea Coast to identify continuing issues and work toward a solution.

“Everybody should just be patient and let’s figure out a solution for this,” Bjelke said. “We’ll work through it.”

Invoices for the upcoming quarter have been mailed out. Customer service representative Angela Green said payments are due April 15. She said payments could be made either monthly for $20 or quarterly for $60 as long as they are made by the 15th. Cash, credit cards, checks, and money orders are all accepted forms of payment.

Green said if customers fail to make payment by April 15, a $35 late fee would be assessed.