Tenants at OKC apartments dealing with mounds of garbage; unpaid bill to blame

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - Tenants at an Oklahoma City apartment were fed up with a mountain of trash they said had been piling up for weeks. They turned to News 4 for help. The situation outside the Douglass Apartments on High Street had started to cause as stink in the neighborhood.

"Just like if you go to the sanitation department over off Sooner Road,” said Vicki Gabriel, a neighbor a few doors from the dumpsters. “That's the smell that you catch."

She said she had seen piles of trash mounding outside the complex for nearly two months. Two residents News 4 spoke to also said the garbage was an ongoing issue. They told News 4 it was because management had not kept up with the trash bill.

"If you're going to build these beautiful apartments around here, keep it beautiful and nothing is worse than trash and the smell of trash," said Gabriel.

KFOR went to the leasing office to ask a manager what was causing the smelly situation, but the office was closed. During our visit last week, the dumpsters were overflowing with trash and mounds were piled up outside. We checked back three says later and a new rollaway dumpster was parked out front. It too was filled with trash. A company called Waste Connections showed up while News 4 was there. They hauled off one dumpster and replaced it with another.

A woman believed to be the manager approached our News 4 crew while we were there and asked us to leave. She gave us an email address to contact the corporate offices for comment. She did tell News 4 the trash collection issue was a leftover problem from the previous management group and they were working to remedy to situation.

KFOR emailed the new management company, Royal Management Company. They responded to our email and said the problem had not been going on for months, only a few weeks. They said they have now paid all outstanding bills from the previous management team and trash collection should be back to normal for the complex in the coming days.