Northeast News
September 10, 2014

Don’t look for any of the heated discussions on the illegal dumping issue to die down any time soon, especially after the bureaucrats at city hall approved a deal last week to hike the extra trash bag fee on residents. Given the 25 percent hike this year, 150 percent over the life of the fee, this crafty newshound looks for illegal dumping to spike upwards as residents won’t pay the extra freight for the extra trash bags. Couple that with the ongoing debacle that is the “Bulky Item” pick-up mess and you’ve got a recipe for trash disaster on an epic scale.

Since there are no plans to hire extra illegal dumping investigators, this means extra work for the already short-staffed department that is charged with catching and fining illegal dumpers citywide. Additionally, since the city refuses to go back to a bulky item route system, this means it becomes increasingly difficult for residents to dispose of their garbage.

This ol’ news pooch thinks that instead of making the trash system more complex, the city should be making it easier. Go back to the route system for bulky item pick-up and do away with the ridiculous two bag limit. Then again, this city has always had an issue with misplaced priorities. Instead of focusing on basic infrastructure issues like trash, streetlights, curbs and sidewalks, the city hall bureaucrats – that know better than we do by the way – are busy trying to figure out how to rob city coffers to fund the hot mess that is the downtown toy train streetcar. This trash-talkin pooch is not amused.