Dying Longton, Part Five; What A Bunch Of Garbage!

[CCarl]

What A Bunch Of Garbage!                         Copyright © MMXXII CCarl

I could just as easily have titled this post, 'Where the Poor Subsidize the Rich'. That is what our City's billing process for trash collection does. [So does sewer billing. See Part Seven, to follow.] I bought property here over the internet, and moved here without visiting. My first impression was trash blowing everywhere, my second was dumpsters everywhere. Initial impressions can be important. I thought, 'this town is trashed'.

I take one kitchen-size [13-gallon] bag of waste to a dumpster weekly. Rarely, a second bag may be needed. My guess is many of you single-livers and those who are active recyclers of metal, glass, and plastic, do much the same. And we pay the same disposal fee monthly as a family of five that disposes of five to ten times the trash we do. That is discrimination against small families and efficient recyclers. [And those are frequently the poorer families, trying to reduce costs they cannot afford.] That needs to stop. We should pay for ONLY what we dispose of. PERIOD. If that increases rates for large families, so be it. If those large families do not like paying more, let them learn to conserve.

As future posts on Dying Longton come, the reader will discover other ways the City discriminates against families, so stay tuned. However, the way trash disposal is billed is not the only problem with our trash system. We are littering our town with, and because of, dumpsters. Read on.

1) I drove around Longton on trash collection day, December 7th. I counted 52 large dumpsters and 24 little blue personal containers within our city limits. I could see two or three from almost any intersection, sometimes as many as five. Now, there is a real nice look to first time visitors, potential new residents, and potential investors [sarcasm intended].

2) The weight of trash collection trucks breaks down our poorly constructed city roads, especially during wet months and our short spring break-up period, when we have one. Somebody should ask City Hall just how much time and taxpayer money is spent repairing road damage from trash collection trucks. Oh, did I mention those broken down and rutted shoulders, and potholes all over town probably do not impress the potential new resident or business investor, either?

Because of soft shoulders, some of our dumpsters sit so far out in the street, the street is virtually one-lane where it goes by the dumpster. Now there's another thing to not impress visitors, and it just may be a hazard to drivers.

3) I bet no one in town notices how many plastic bags and styrofoam cups blow around our town with every decent wind. I bet! We are a lazy lot aren't we? We have to push those dang heavy lids open to dispose of trash, then we just leave them open, instead of shutting them when we're done. Human nature, I suppose, but with 52 big dumpsters scattered all over town with open lids, so is trash when the wind blows, into tree canopies, fence lines, culverts, and drainage ditches. Now, there is curb appeal for the visitor and investor to see! Oh, wait, sorry, Longton doesn't have curbs, except for a few blocks on Kansas Ave. [It doesn't really have investors, either, does it?]

Our mayor is so worried about vacant homes on private property being unseemly, not to mention our stacks of wood, scrap metal, junk cars, and unkept yards. Can the mayor honestly think old homes are a worse public image than ugly blue dumpsters on every street, or our broken down streets, or trash scattered all over town? I know, dumpsters were the last issue in her 17-point plan to improve Longton in 2022. I responded to her survey last winter, and dumpsters were my #1 issue. I believe a few other respondents also mentioned them. Regardless, she and the council have done nothing about them. [By the time I'm done with these posts, you may discover the mayor has done very little that is worthwhile, and too much that is worthless to wrong. Nor has our Council represented us well.]

4) County residents dispose of trash in our city dumpsters, and we have essentially no way of stopping them. There are fines if they are caught, but not automatic ones, fines need to go through the Court system to be set. Is that effective, have County residents been fined? Not that I could find. How much do county residents add to our dumpsters? See if City Hall has come up with a number. My 'guesstimate' is below.

Using the 2010 number of 147 households in town [see Part Four], that is 2.8 households per dumpster. City Hall told me there are currently 132 residents that pay for City utilities. If residents equals households, then we have 2.5 households for each dumpster. If I subtract the 24 personal containers as households that do not use the dumpsters, we have 108 households sharing 52 dumpsters, or 2.08 households per dumpster! Seriously!? Do we really dispose of that much trash? Does the average 2.08 families fill a dumpster every week in this town? [As a single-liver I could not fill a dumpster in a year!]

Given those numbers, might the County residents' trash almost double the trash that is collected weekly? Might it be possible to reduce the number of dumpsters, AND reduce trash collection from weekly to three times a month, reducing our collection costs by 25% or more in the process, and still meet the demand for trash disposal? What if the City cracked down on County dumpers? And what would that cost, Mr. and Mrs. City Council members? Have you done ANY due diligence on the issue?

So, what would be effective to end this ugliness, and overpayment fiasco? As I (and possibly others) have suggested to the mayor, and as she put at the bottom of her 2022 agenda, a single collection site. I will address details and options of a single disposal location in Post 19. [Yea, sorry, I'm long-winded. But folks in this town have let government run them over for too long, so there are issues to discuss.]

5) Oops, here is one more dumpster issue. Dumpsters are feeding grounds for mice, rats, opossums, raccoons, armadillos, feral cats, and the occasional coyote. All those critters carry infectious diseases, including various types of hepatitis, HIV, plague [with fleas as the transmission vector], and even leprosy with armadillos. Don't believe me, call a few veterinarians and ask. I heard about it when I adopted a three-week old litter of seven kittens from a feral mom. And there is the number one potential health and safety issue in Longton, VARMINTS. Eliminating dumpsters from every city block will reduce that health and safety issue more than any other action by the City, short of poisoning the varmints. On the plus side, all those critters give us opportunity for target practice. [Note, I am not advocating shooting varmints on public property within the city limits. However, when they wander onto private property and become destructive, well then.]

What a criticizer I am!  But, it usually is 'criticism before resolution'. I will get around to constructive ways to resolve the issues I see, and improve this community. But first, bear with another ten or so posts of criticism. Patience! And when you agree with points I make, let the mayor and council people hear your voice in no uncertain terms. And post your thoughts here, whether you agree, or not.