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To the Editor:
I've lived in Safety Harbor for
approximately 13 years and have grown accustomed to yard work --
and lots of it. I guess living in the sub-tropics, you get quite
good at trimming plants and trees, pulling vines, ridding of weeds,
and the yearly raking of live oak leaves.
However, I've never been concerned of
getting rid of my yard debris -- until now. Like always, I fill my
90-gallon city trash can and whatever doesn't fit, I just put into
yard trash bags and put them to the curb for pickup. That no longer
works as the city no longer picks up bags of trash -- unless
pre-arranged and for a fee.
I called the city and they informed me
that unless trash is in the 90-gallon trash can, or I buy my own
32-gallon trash cans to use, or I arrange a special pick up (yes,
for a fee), then they don't pick up bags of trash anymore. Wow --
talk about an inconvenience to us citizens.
Onto the recycling department. They no
longer collect glass to recycle? What? Have I just lost my mind?
Isn't glass one of the main reasons that recycling happened in the
first place?
The city claims that it now costs too much
to recycle glass. I could point to many city projects that we could
have done without that would have more than paid for the cost to
keep recycling the glass that is now going to the landfill
instead.
If recycling the glass costs too much now,
how about conducting a quick poll from the citizens to see if they
would be willing to absorb the difference in costs. What would it
be, a few dollars extra per month each, if that?
It seems to me that we have taken a couple
of steps backwards as a city. By no longer collecting all the
garbage (or making it more inconvenient for the citizen), and not
recycling glass (and thereby contributing to landfills and making
the environment worse for our future generations), our city has
really made some mistakes.
I'm just one voice, maybe nobody else
agrees, but I believe that I had to voice my opinion. Maybe others
do agree, if so, contact your city commissioners who are supposed
to be representing YOU.
Trent Jones
Safety Harbor
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