February 8, 2008
If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering where this big to-do about garbage collection came from. The township seemed to be doing well enough without an exclusive service provider and a trash bureaucracy - that is a “utility” - during the nearly 26 years I’ve been living here. When someone became unhappy with their trash collector, they just went and hired a new one. Or they, either individually or collectively with a few neighbors, made a dump run every few weeks. There wasn’t any crisis, and people seemed content enough to do what worked best for them.
So, I looked at our Council Minutes as posted on the Township website for some history and insight. I had to go all the way back to Sept. 13, 2005 to find the first mentions of “refuse bids” and “a self-liquidating utility” prior to the current controversy. Then I went further back to May of 2004 to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. There’s nothing in the council minutes indicating where a “garbage” concern might have come from back then, but how it got resolved is there. Then-mayor Hambel stated she would only be in favor of it if it didn’t mandate that people participate. Whatever discussion ensued isn’t recorded in the minutes, but the changes the council made when it amended Chapter XXII (Solid Waste Management…) at its Dec. 13 meeting did not include the creation of a garbage utility, and obviously, did not mandate garbage pick up by a lone service provider.
We residents have continued to manage our trash disposal needs quite well since that somewhat mysterious 2005 effort failed. I found no mention of “garbage” in Council Minutes until I got to July 29, 2006. That’s when newly elected (July 6, 2006) Councilman Goldberg became mayor and stated that he wanted to “…re-examine whether the citizens would like to have garbage pick up…” and wanted to make doing so a council goal.
The mayor’s comment apparently didn’t resonate with citizens or other council members though, because nothing else was said or done until he again brought the subject up at the April 10, 2007 meeting.
Again, not much enthusiasm I guess, because nothing was said or done until Deputy Mayor Brady asked a “bulk waste pick up” question at the Sept.17 2007 meeting. This apparently caused
Now, I don’t find fault with elected officials being proactive in making the township a better place. Nor do I expect their every effort to be successful, or even able to withstand careful scrutiny and the tests of practicality, or public acceptance. But when “making the community a better place” in one respect causes it to be a less better place in other ways, good elected leaders ought to stop and rethink what they’re trying to accomplish. I expect my elected officials to do just that. This “garbage” thing, and especially the manner in which it has been presented and pursued, is not good for our community. It comes at a bad time, given other divisive situations affecting Spartans.
Would it not be a better thing for
The most significant outcome of a March 11 referendum will be to make some
Herbert Sauter,
