I was all ready to put up a post about a completely different topic today, but as I was getting ready for work I was greeted by the sound of a garbage truck. Wednesday on my street at least three different companies pick up trash. Ridiculous.
I’ve written about my experience at the meeting in Town Hall last November so I’m not going to rehash that here, but I will say that I am in favor of a single trash hauler for the city. It’s been studied extensively and the bids that the city received last year show that for most households their financial cost would go down, in many cases significantly.
I don’t think that the timing was right to include trash in last year’s budget, and when city council chose to remove it, what I was disheartened to see was that the matter was dropped entirely. It’s a divisive issue, but it’s one that merits its own discussion, separate from the budget. I went on record at the February 19 city council meeting about it, but unfortunately that was the last time I can find that it was addressed by city council.
There’s a reason that Bethlehem and Altoona are the only two third-class cities in the state without a single trash hauler, and it’s not because our current system is better. Let’s fix it.