Your Opinion: Explore more equitable rates

Dear Editor:

Solid waste service will be the subject of upcoming open house meetings in City Hall. Rates may be discussed.

Our present service is excellent. I have never had a missed pick-up with our system.

The rate structure is grossly inequitable. Small-time users subsidize the big-time users. A person living alone must pay the same rate as a large family. I wheel out my blue carts once every few weeks. The containers are rarely filled to the top. Other customers fill their cans to overflowing every week. Something must be done about this.

The old bag system was more equitable. We only paid for the amount of service we used. New systems reduce labor. Not as many people need to be employed to pick up our garbage and our recycling. We are told that the old bag system may never come back. What are we to do?

There are many possibilities. We could bill for solid-waste service based upon the number of residents in a household. We could offer an alternative one-time per month service. How about orange cans to be picked up only on the first week of the month? We could install electronic scales on the pick-up arms of garbage trucks to weigh the can and its contents. Our monthly bill would be based upon the weight of our garbage and recycling.

The overall rate for solid waste services appears to be fair. We are told that people out in the county pay more. The individual rate is not fair.

I admonish the City Council. I admonish city staff. Do something. Make the rates more equitable.

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