INC NEWS - yard waste plan on table - time to move forward

[RW Pickle]

The Council heard the 10 Year Plan for Solid Waste yesterday and the yard
waste issue surfaced again. This thorn in our side has the opportunity to
be delt with once and for all during this current budget cycle. It's not
free; price tag is $1.1M to drop the fees only 25% of the customer base
pays and provide it to the remainder of the 75% (as well as those of us
who have been with the program since its inception). In that cost, a code
enforcent officer is part of the package to enfore the newly revised
Section 10 rules; no carts at curbs, no grocery cart in creeks and
neighborhoods, illegal dumping, and mixed waste issues. All positive
movements for getting this City back on track.

Making this program a city-wide program should allow this City to get a
grip on a couple of things. The general appearance of the City should
dramatically improve since everyone will be able to get rid of yard debris
on a weekly basis at no cost (there is a cost here as you know, but the
subscriber fee system will vanish and everyone will be a part of the
program). The second thing it should address the illegal dumping of these
materials which not only causes the City to have to clean them up, but it
adds to the general appearance of the City as well. Not to mention the
mandates to keep our streams and rivers cleaner of the dumped debris.

Our new Solid Waste Director, James "Action" Jackson weighed in and said
why drag it out by doing it as a phased in idea, just do it and get it
behind us. That's why I call him "Action Jackson".

We've spent alot of time talking about this issue and now we have the
opportunity to do something about it. The budget date is May 15th. I know
PatrickBaker (our City Manager charged with getting the budget together)
is on this list, so I hesitate to ask all of you to start sending him
emails supporting the resolve to this issue. Maybe he can weigh in here
and help us out. I understand he already gets more email than humanly
possible to read. And if that is what it takes to drive this issue home
for the last time, then we all know how simple that is to do. But maybe
since the resolve for the yard waste changes came from INC in the
beginning, he'll address us as to what it's going to take. Council has to
approve the budget anyway and can add or subtract items. And there seems
to be support from Council in getting us past this yearly issue, nad I'm
sure we can add our 2 cents in to them for support as well. This has not
been so much a City issue as it has been a citizen issue. So much so that
Council charged Solid Waste to come up with a solution. Well, here we are
at that intersection.

On another positive note about the Solid Waste Department, besides getting
out all across this City and getting the community involved in the thought
process, they are the only major division of our City that has set up
accountability standards when it comes to citizen complaints. Two other
samller divisions of two other department are the only others that have
done this. This accountability layer assures that when we as citizens have
complaints about a service or needed repair, these complaints are
addressed and resolved in a timely manner. In a recent letter a number of
citizens signed and sent to the Solid Waste Division, we recognized that
there has been a significant positive change in the way Solid Waste does
business. This accountability layer to the citizens is just a part of that
positive change and as a citizen, I'd like to thank them for looking out
for the ones who foot the bill.

RWP
27 Beverly