Trash plan criticized - Sentinel & Enterprise

J_in _Ward _1 wrote:

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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.

So if your trash fees double, you will do what?
RECYCLE! You will waste less recycle more. Sounds like a win win to me.
Perfect world.

Interesting wrote:

I attended this meeting last night, and noticed Mayor Wong did not speak. This is a plan she wants to implement, I understand trash falls under the board of health but why should they be forced to present something they did not decide to implement. The information the board of health director was provided with was lacking what us taxpayers wanted to know. He was placed in a constant back pedal thanks to the Mayor. I'm sure he didn't appreciate being thrown under the bus driven by you, but your policy is do as I say or you're fired.
Yes something needs to be done about the budget, but I don't think increasing the trash fee is the correct path. Consider your options when the city employees are due new contracts, do not allow them to take a city owned car home unless their position requires it. Why should taxpayers have to pay for the extra wear and tear imposed on these vehicles. Reduce the hours of some of the non essential City Hall staff, there doesn't really need to be 4-5 people working in the treasurers office everyday. I have never encountered them being busy. There are plenty of other ideas I could provide you with. Just give me a call or email me you have all my info Lisa.

Not to mention the gas they use to commute. Pretty good we taxpayers have to foot the gas at $3.70 a gallon as well.Tally that up for a year with all the city vehicles. Might just get to keep that extra firefighter that will go into your burning home and rescue you or your children.

Leslie wrote:

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So if your trash fees double, you will do what?
RECYCLE! You will waste less recycle more. Sounds like a win win to me.
Perfect world.

Oh boy, I can tell you one thing for sure. You will be picking up rubbish all over the city streets and not to mention you think the illegal dumping is bad now ? Wait and see what happens when you pay by the bag LOL. Tell me you have not noticed the T.V.'s ditched all over the wooded areas of Fitchburg ? Open your eyes and take a good look..This is win win ?

Your A Joke wrote:

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Oh boy, I can tell you one thing for sure. You will be picking up rubbish all over the city streets and not to mention you think the illegal dumping is bad now ? Wait and see what happens when you pay by the bag LOL. Tell me you have not noticed the T.V.'s ditched all over the wooded areas of Fitchburg ? Open your eyes and take a good look..This is win win ?

If we don't force recycling now, then when?
Really you sound like this is NEVER gonna work. How can it be worse. Those that dump trash are trash that will always do things like that. There are decent people, and more of them, who will make this a success.

Leslie wrote:

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If we don't force recycling now, then when?
Really you sound like this is NEVER gonna work. How can it be worse. Those that dump trash are trash that will always do things like that. There are decent people, and more of them, who will make this a success.

Spoken like a true Democrat! We will force the people of this nation to do our bidding, all under the presumed idea we are helping the enviornment. We have a president today who is all balls no brains, in November we are bound to vote in a Dem. who is some brains no balls, and I mean both of them that are running. Gas and soon home heating oil, are going to be at records that the people who barley got by last year are going to freeze to death, food prices are going to choke this country to the point of anarchy. Now compound that with with every city adding new taxes and fictitious fee's, can you KABOOM. The writing is on the wall. To respond to FireFighters comment about getting a gun, you hit the nail on the head, one problem with that is that the new Chief of PD, will not issue a LTC, another Dem. who would rather give to look of security, than actually have security. The other guy who has posted twice about the lack of comments about the budget, the trash taxes affect OUR budgets, when she outlines the entire budget, we will gladly talk about that, but right now, we are concerned about how far this mayor thinks she is going to dig in our wallets. I hear the words all the time, "time to tighten the belt" the saying means around the waist, not the neck!

Gomer Pile wrote:

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Lets analyze this:
I am a city worker tooling around the burg in my shiny city owned POS Ford Focus and 5:00 comes around. I am 3 miles from my home and I am 4 miles from the parking lot where city owned cars are kept at night. Does it make sense to drive the extra mile so my city owned car can sit in an unattended parking lot all night. YES OK, some nights the math will go the other way.
Lets imagine that the math DOES go the other way for an entire year (252 business days) to the tune of about 4 miles a day. Thats 1008 miles per year...at .12 cents per mile of gas is a whole $120 per year of savings per vehicle.
Points to think about
1) Somedays it WILL be cheaper for a city owned vehicle to be garaged at a city workers house overnight....the math above is a worst case analysis.
2) Are the chances of vehicle theft/vandalism better or worse at a city workers house or in a city vehicle parking lot?
3) If the city had 20 vehicles were talking about $2400 savings MAX! Great, so now we only have $4,997,600 more to find...maybe we should all go out and pick aluminum cans from the trash.

Gomer, your analysis is a bit off. First, you're assuming that all the city employees that take their cars home at night actually live in the city. Secondly, you forgot about the additional costs of wear and tear on the vehicle, additional oil changes, tires etc. Not to mention the additional miles that shorten the life of the vehicle.

Back to the trash fee, tax, whatever you want to call it. The city is desperate for revenue. It has to come from somewhere. Fitchburg is one of the only communities in the area that DOESN'T currently have a pay as you throw program. I don't look forward to my "fees" or "taxes" going up, but, as a city, we can't continue to live beyond our means. Wake up people, the city is in dire financial straights. We ALL need to do our part to help. If it means an increase in taxes or fees, so be it. And no, I'm not independantly wealthy, just realistic.

For all of you armchair mayors that think you can do a better job, why don't you run for mayor the next time around. This is the first competent mayor we have had in years. She has some very tough decisions to make. You must all be living in a fantasy world if you thought no increases would be sought.

You're right Former Municipal Official, the attention a pay as you throw trash program gets vs. news about the total city budget blows my mind. It just goes to show you that most of the posters have no clue of the intricacies of municipal finance.

OK, Westside Resident, here's an intricacy of municipal finance - are the people taking city-owned vehicles at night paying taxes on this?

This type of fringe benefit is compensation and any personal miles they drive in the vehicle, including their normal commutes, should be reported to the IRS as taxable income at the Federal mileage rate. Is this happening though, or are they getting an illegal free ride?

Leslie wrote:

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So if your trash fees double, you will do what?
RECYCLE! You will waste less recycle more. Sounds like a win win to me.
Perfect world.

I'd be happy to recycle more. Pick up the recycling bins every week and the regular trash every other week. Worried the regular trash will smell? Keep it outside your house in a varmint-proof container like I do.

But it doesn't matter how much I recycle, I bet the $100 a year fee will go up every single year because of other people who don't recycle and because of the high costs of WM which has a virtual monopoly on trash pickup.

I dont so much mind the buying of bags, but the 100 dollar fee has to go. And what about the people who dont have city water and sewer. How will they get billed for this "fee" if they dont get a water bill?

Good point J in Ward 1, I'd be willing to bet they are getting an illegal free ride.