Some residents in Selma last week raised concerns over slow garbage pick-up.

The Selma Times-Journal newsroom received several telephone calls that workers with the city’s garbage department were walking behind the truck, lifting cans and dumping in the trash.

Mayor George Evans said he looked into the situation and discovered the two men certified to drive the city’s garbage truck with the automatic lift were ill.

“I told them that if there was a situation with the garbage truck and it didn’t go out, to fax me,” Evans said.

The mayor said last week’s slow garbage pickup was indicative of a need to have more people in the department trained on the machinery.

“We’ve got to get more trucks and more personnel,” he said.

Selma City Councilwoman Susan Keith, who chairs the garbage subcommittee, said she was unaware at the time about the problems with garbage pickup in Ward 3 and Ward 6.

“But before we spend money on anything else, we need to spend money on our garbage collection,” she said.