For months, residents and public officials of Sharon, Hermitage, Farrell and Wheatland have grumbled about Waste Management's failure to buy back unused garbage bags and finish picking up its residential toters.

A resolution to both issues appears near.

Hermitage officials announced Wednesday that Waste Management representatives will be at the Sharon City Building from 9 to 11 a.m.. May 2 to buy back bags.

"It's about time," said Commissioner James P. "Pat" White.

Administrative Assistant Fran Lengyel added that plans are in the works to pick up the remaining toters.

Waste Management, which has a Greenville office, lost the garbage hauling contract for the four towns as of Feb. 1 to a bid by Tri-County Industries, Springfield Township.

Hermitage has about 2,500 garbage customers and hundreds of the toters have not been picked up, Lengyel said.

Some residents have simply pushed the toters to the curbs and let them sit, some still with garbage in them.

Farrell city officials said the extra toters made it more difficult to navigate sidewalks during the snowy winter.

Hermitage officials went so far as discussing with Tri-County ways to get rid of the toters, including having them picked up and hauled away for recycling or taken to a landfill, and having them collected and stored on city property until Waste Management got around to picking them up.