Benton Harbor's Mayor Muhammad speaks about fixing the city's trash issue

BENTON HARBOR, Mich – The city of Benton Harbor is still dealing with trash piling up around the city. 

Mayor Marcus Muhammad sat down with ABC57 to explain what he is doing to correct the situation.  

“The goal like I stated on Monday is to have everything packed up by Friday,” Mayor Muhammad said.  

The problem began when the city paid $39 thousand dollars to the wrong person at WeCycle Industrial Sanitation. 

Monday night after debating the solution the City Commissioners voted to issue another payment to WeCycle to resume trash service while they figure out the original error. 

Benton Harbor resident Serena Smith said she understands things happen but she would’ve liked to have better communication throughout the whole ordeal.  

“I wish they would’ve informed us in the beginning instead of letting the trash sit there for days before you looked on Facebook to see why your trash hadn’t been picked up,” Smith said. 

Mayor Muhammad said an internal investigation is underway to assess the issue and to figure out why it happened and how to prevent it from happening again.  

“This has never happened and it happened now so it’s my job as the Mayor I’m not into the day-to-day affairs that’s not my role however at a certain point at a certain time if necessary like now I have to step in,” Mayor Muhammad said.