Trash plan criticized - Sentinel & Enterprise

cars cars cars cars wrote:

yes how about the car that travels 100 miles each way i pay for the gas thru my taxes.all city owned cars should and will be parked in a garage.you should be ashamed to take a care home go buy your own car and pay for your own gas i do not care if it is 1/2 mile it should be parked period!!!!!!!!!!s

You want us to believe that there's a city owned car with 50,400 commuting miles/year on it? BTW, this would have cost $6048 in gas just for the commute...think someone would notice that?

Pics/vid or it didn't happen.....

Liam wrote:

MIDDLEBORO — In its annual report to selectmen Monday, the Capital Planning Committee warned that trash fees will quadruple within eight years and said revenue from the town’s trash fees should be set aside to offset the increase.

So if trash costs double every other year, instead of trying to reduce the costs, let's just pass them on through to the residents? Pass them on through, pass them on through - sounds more like an enema than leadership to me.

What happened to a goverment of for the people by the people? This matter should be a vote! We ALL deserve to have a say in this. Once it is instituted it will be like a blank check with yearly increases. Do we really want this to happen to us?

Gomer Pile wrote:

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You want us to believe that there's a city owned car with 50,400 commuting miles/year on it? BTW, this would have cost $6048 in gas just for the commute...think someone would notice that?
Pics/vid or it didn't happen.....

I believe I've read in the past some city official lived out of state and commuted with a city-owned vehicle (Seems like Keene area? If so, 40.15 miles one-way). I too would like specifics.

J_in _Ward _1 wrote:

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I believe I've read in the past some city official lived out of state and commuted with a city-owned vehicle (Seems like Keene area? If so, 40.15 miles one-way). I too would like specifics.

Frankly, if its not happening today...its irrelevant to the current budget situation. If its not currently happening, then there is no money to save by stopping it.

Former City Councilor Thomas Donnelly said enforcement of such a program will be "a nightmare" because of residents who will try to cheat the system.

Ya probably, starting with himself. Heres a guy who made an empire off HUD, slumlorded most of the properties he stole, sells them back to "US" via the college, yet he can't stand to pay his fair share. He should be paying for dumpsters and trash pick up at all his properties.
We should get the board of health over to his places.

Property Taxes and Water Liens are already high enough, as an owner of a multi-family property, not only do i have to pay for water used by tenants, now I will have to pay to have their garbage removed? Should I
just write a blank check to the City of Fitchburg? Selling and getting out is starting to sound like an excellent idea, and I just did $161k in renovations to my property. I love throwing money in the toilet.

There are a few city employees that currently do have a contract that allows them to bring a city owned vehicle home ever night. One of them lives in New Hampshire and for the others I'm not sure. The former administration was stupid enough to allow this to be part of their contract. I highly doubt this New Hampshire person who come to handle anything after hours unless it were an absolute emergency.

If you think about it, Its 100 buck s ayear, plus the bags its really not that much money considering you pay for bags now....Yeah it sucks but the city has to do what it has to do, we can't print our own money so what else should we do? I think this is the most fair solution...you dont like it...Just bring it to the dump

Gomer Pile wrote:

<quoted text>
You want us to believe that there's a city owned car with 50,400 commuting miles/year on it? BTW, this would have cost $6048 in gas just for the commute...think someone would notice that?
Pics/vid or it didn't happen.....

Thats nothing. did you see the article in Fitchburg Pride?

"Under the Master Medical plan, the city pays $1,766.25 per month, or $21,195 annually, per individual in the plan. If workers switched to the Blue Care Elect plan, the city would pay $1,365 per month,$16,380 per person.

Are they kidding? Who the hell pays that kind of premium for such a large plan?
They need a medical insurance person to negotiate.

Left over bull**** from the stupid idiot pantsalesman and his cronies. WAKE UP CITY HALL.

WE ARE DROWING HERE.

Interesting wrote:

There are a few city employees that currently do have a contract that allows them to bring a city owned vehicle home ever night. One of them lives in New Hampshire and for the others I'm not sure. The former administration was stupid enough to allow this to be part of their contract. I highly doubt this New Hampshire person who come to handle anything after hours unless it were an absolute emergency.

If they have a contract for a company (city) car then its not abuse is it? Its actually part of that city employee's COMPENSATION PACKAGE.

Without details its impossible to determine if people that have "car perks" are pulling one over on the city or not.

My original point from the beginning was that the city is not going to magically find $5,000,000 or even .5% of that amount in city employees abuse.

$100 per household is serious money that can make a difference in the budget. Compared to other towns, its not out of line either. I say cancel trash pickup altogether and let people hire their own collection company....the market will set the price.

Why doesnt the city lookinto getting wind turbones around all the reservoirs, they can save HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars in electricty every year and they pay for themselves in 7 years!!!...also why doesnt the city do what the school district is doing and save energy and get someone in there to help monitor the energy uses....cut back where you can!

As far as trash from other towns going to the dump, Fitchburg and Westminster both get a percentage. The trash dumped at the Leominster transfer station all goes to Fitchburg as well. The next closest landfill is in Barre but also run by WM. I beleive the current limit for the dump is 1500 tons per day and they try to meet it because of the amount of money it gives them. Many people still won't bother to recycle or pay for bags, they'll just dump it somewhere or bring to their work and put it in their dumpster.

This morning I observed that the story on the majors total budget had not then attracted any posts, and that this story already had several. At the end of the day, the trash talk wins 55-6. The trash program is a small, but important, part of a much larger budget. State law require that this budget be balanced. And balanced is an apt word, suggestive of the exercise of balancing the interests of all departments, and all tax payers, making them all equally unhappy.

The major is facing a gap of $5,000,000, or if I understand the numbers correctly, about 5% of the total budget. The trash program this budget preserves is but one of her accomplishments. Along wih the $5,000,000 in savings achieved by, among other things, her bold departmental reorganization, she is recommending reserves for snow removal, and general reserves for the stabilization fund. Not a bad plan for her first time out. That's what we should all be talking about.

For what it's worth, Lunenburg town meeting voters just voted to increase their trash bag fees by $.50, after recognizing that cost increases are outpacing revenues.

From reading this, I can tell you that if I were a municipal employee looking for a job, I wouldn't consider working in Fitchburg. How can you expect quality leadership when you won't pay for it and have nothing attractive to offer but (yes I'll say it) bitterness.

If the comments here are any indication, Fitchburg residents are completely out of touch with the fiscal reality that the city faces and the actual buying power of their collective tax dollars. Government services cost money, more money than Fitchburg residents pay. And Fitchburg has long enjoyed a disproportionate contribution from the state.

Former Municipal Official wrote:

This morning I observed that the story on the majors total budget had not then attracted any posts, and that this story already had several. At the end of the day, the trash talk wins 55-6. The trash program is a small, but important, part of a much larger budget. State law require that this budget be balanced. And balanced is an apt word, suggestive of the exercise of balancing the interests of all departments, and all tax payers, making them all equally unhappy.
The major is facing a gap of $5,000,000, or if I understand the numbers correctly, about 5% of the total budget. The trash program this budget preserves is but one of her accomplishments. Along wih the $5,000,000 in savings achieved by, among other things, her bold departmental reorganization, she is recommending reserves for snow removal, and general reserves for the stabilization fund. Not a bad plan for her first time out. That's what we should all be talking about.

Your right. We should be talking about the wonderful changes and decisions she and the city council have made.
We probably won't because there are too many 'nimby's' and 'oh no not me's', that the selfishness rises above common sense.

Personally, I think she is doing an outstanding job.
Am I crazy about a trash fee? No, of course not. I will see it as my part and will do it along with a ton more recyclying.
Recycling is going to catch on quickly how can that be a bad thing.

Come on Fitchburg, lets get better!

I moved from NH to Worcester when I went to college, and that is the first time I encountered a "pay as you throw" program. I also learned that Worcester has one of the best recycling programs in the state, if not the country. While I hate the idea of more taxes, especially at a time when everyone is starting to feel the pressure from rising fuel costs and a borderline recession, at least the secondary effects are a positive. If my choice was between a blanket tax raise, and one aimed at making people pay for the services they use, I'd choose this program every time. What I'd like to see in the way of saving money is allowing the city to use services from non-union businesses. Unions are notoriously inefficient and overpriced - let the market set the price in those areas, and you'll be opening up more work for capable, independent people and saving a bundle in the process.

As to fuel costs, how about community policing on foot and bicycles instead of driving around in cruisers or sitting idling in cruisers in speed traps? There are ways to reduce gas usage (helping both the budget and the environment).

Hey Ward 1, the speed traps will continue to get some much needed $$$$, but with 12 cops being off the payroll ( 3 retired, 2 left for better jobs, 8 to be laid off) maybe they'll have less speed traps.

By the way KMart has a sale on guns homeowners are going to need one soon.