PROGRESO – Residents are complaining their trash isn’t being collected on time.

Elisa Barrera loves her small community. She's lived in the city of Progreso for 20 years.

She enjoys the relationships she's developed over the years. The city's become her little slice of heaven.

"It's a calm city, never had any problems, everything is chill, people are calm," Barrera said.

She meets with a group of friends every week to discuss what's new with family, friends, and the city they call home.

The topic of discussion this week is trash collection.

Barrera said a few weeks ago everything changed. She told CHANNEL 5 NEWS the city began falling behind on their trash collection.

"You are so used to, every eight days you put the trash together for them to pick up and now you struggle. It just sits there a day or two piling up," Barrera explained.

We headed to Progreso City Hall to find out what's causing the late pickups.

City manager Alfredo Espinosa said the city's attorney found problems with the contract they signed with their former trash company. He explained as a result the city decided to terminate that contract a few weeks ago.

Espinosa said a legal matter is keeping the new company from getting to work.

"The previous trash company saw fit to take legal action and right now they were granted a restraining order for the new company not to collect," Espinosa told CHANNEL 5 NEWS.

Espinosa said while the legal matter is being resolved the city was forced to find another solution.

"In the meantime, the trash is building up, and due health concerns city workers are picking up the trash, temporarily until the legal issues are straightened out," Espinosa said.

The city manager said the delays are due to a lack of bodies. The city only has three city workers to pick up all of the trash in the city.

Those city workers also have to complete their normal work responsibilities.

Barrera and her friends said they hope the city finds a resolution to the problem sooner rather than later.

Espinosa said he apologizes for the delay but residents can rest assure the city is working hard to resolve the matter.