What do Lexington residents call 311 for? Everything from mattresses to dead animals
Lexington’s LexCall 311 center logged more than 90,000 service requests from Fayette County residents in 2025.
The vast majority of those requests were about the same topic: trash.
Of the 91,008 service requests, 62,808 — or 69% of them — were about waste management, according to LexCall 311 data from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2025.
LexCall 311 has been the city’s main customer service line since 1997.
Those trash or waste management complaints include all of Lexington’s waste management services from missed trash pickups, broken or missing Herbies, the city’s trash container, or busted Rosies, the city’s recycling bins, data from LexCall 311 shows.
Not all of those requests for services are complaints. Many are inquiries about starting trash or recycling pick up, getting dumpsters for private businesses or calls to pick up bulky items that don’t fit in Herbies or Rosies.
For example, there were 2,239 calls to pick up old appliances last year, LexCall data shows.
People were tossing more than old refrigerators or dishwashers. More than twice as many mattresses hit the curb as old appliances in 2025, according to city data.
There were 4,533 service requests for Lexington waste management to pick up discarded mattresses. It was the fifth most common service request in 2025, data shows.
Also near the top of the list were people reporting nuisance code violations, with 5,879 calls. Nuisance code violations can vary from a neighbor’s grass is too high, junk vehicles in driveways to trash in yards.
There were also 2,414 calls regarding housing code violations, such as broken windows, rickety porches or dangling gutters.
Calls about potholes, a perennial complaint in any city, were also in the top 10 with 2,459 service requests. Streetlights out, another common complaint, netted 2,109 service requests.
Some of the top complaints or requests for service in 2025 were surprising.
Lexington apparently has a dead animal problem.
Deceased animals netted 976 service requests in 2025, city records show.
From turkey to trash, LexCall hears it all
LexCall 311 Director Kendra Carter said the city’s 311 call center receives about 200,000 calls every year. However, not all of those calls result in a request for service. For example, multiple people may call about the same pothole or city street that needs plowed.
Waste management gets the most service request calls because it’s the largest division that touches nearly every resident in Fayette County, Carter said.
“Not all of those are complaints; they may be requests for services,” Carter said.
One of the most frequent 311 calls is about city trash pick up after holidays.
“If a holiday falls on your collection day, your makeup day is always Wednesday of the same week,” Carter said.
Another common misconception about the city’s waste services is that it is done by the same crew or truck. If there is a bulky item that needs to be picked up — like one of those 4,000 mattresses — it’s typically a separate truck and crew that are operating on a different schedule than trash and recycling pick up.
That can be difficult for residents to understand.
“We will sometimes get calls: ‘They picked up my trash but left the bulky item,’” Carter said.
Few Lexington-area residents also know that most of the city’s major roads, Tates Creek, Nicholasville, Main Street and New Circle Roads, are state roads. The city does not do maintenance on those streets.
Carter and her team try to connect people to the state or other local government office that can help them. For example, if a resident calls LexCall and wants to know where to get a driver’s license, LexCall has all that information, including the hours and address, to pass on to callers, Carter said.
“We can send them a service request through our system, or we can give them a number to call,” Carter said of calls for fixes on state roads.
They also get occasional calls far outside LexCall’s purview or expertise.
“Once at Thanksgiving we got a call from someone who said they had a 16-pound turkey and wanted to know how long to cook it for and at what temperature,” Carter said.
Another frequent caller uses LexCall as his social secretary.
“He just wants to know what’s going on this weekend,” Carter said. LexCall staff pull up the city’s website and try to find something the man wants to do if there are no pressing calls.
Why are there so many calls about dead animals?
Carter, who has been head of LexCall for 18 years, said if an animal dies on private property, it is the homeowners’ responsibility. However, the city will pick up small dead animals if it is double-bagged and placed at the curb. Residents have to request that service, however. That’s likely the majority of those 976 requests for service tied to dead animals.
A lot of those dead animals were killed on city streets.
“A lot of it is road kill,” Carter said. Squirrels and raccoons are common victims, she said.
There have been some unique animal calls to LexCall over the years. Once, a deer was struck on Tates Creek Road. The deer did not die but sadly staggered onto the Lexington Public Library property on Tates Creek.
Librarians have a lot of skills, but corralling injured animals is not one of them, she said.
LexCall sent city employees to get the animal because it was on public property.
A helping hand and sometimes a listening ear
The nine full-time and one part-time LexCall employees try to connect residents to services and fix problems, Carter said.
That looks differently depending on the call.
A woman called recently who wanted to get a smaller Herbie. The woman could no longer wheel the Herbie to the curb due to medical issues.
“She was depressed and crying. She was unable to do things that she was able to do before,” Carter said. The woman wanted to know if the city had a smaller Herbie, one she could manage.
The city only has one size Herbie. But the LexCall employee knew of a different service. With a doctor’s note and an application, the woman could qualify for an exemption that would allow sanitation employees to roll her Herbie to the curb for her. (The Herbie has to be in a place that is easily accessible to sanitation workers).
“It sounds like something very small, but it made a big difference to her and her life,” Carter said.
Another recent call involved a woman who wanted a city service but the call disconnected. Carter said the call taker realized there was something wrong. She sent public safety to the woman’s house. The woman had fallen. The woman later called the LexCall employee to thank her for sending help.
There have been other times when LexCall employees have not been able to connect a caller with a city service but have been there to help, sometimes just by listening.
Carter remembers a call from a man whose son was shot and killed. The accused shooter was a juvenile. The man wanted that juvenile to be charged as an adult. That’s not something that 311 callers can fix, and there is no city department that could help the grieving, distraught father, Carter said.
“We just stayed on the line with him for about 30 minutes,” Carter said. “He said at the end of the call: I know you aren’t the person who can help me, but I really thank you for listening.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
