Pay-as-you-Throw is confusing
To the editor:
I just loved Mr. Ladner’s blue or orange letter. Thank you for voicing what many of us are thinking. I haven’t heard anything positive about this program, so I thought I’d voice my opinion.
If this new Pay-as-you-Throw is confusing to a younger person, just imagine what it is like for someone 75 to 85. I feel so sorry for the seniors, and we do have a lot of seniors in the Presque Isle area.
Presque Isle is not a wealthy community but we have the highest gas prices and trash collection and rent in the County and most probably the state. Jobs are few and most of them are minimum wage, so heads of families have to both work and, most probably, one or more parents have two jobs just to make ends meet. I don’t know how families with children can afford to live and now they have to pay for orange bags and trash containers to put the orange bags in.
I see anywhere from one to five bags a week at some houses. That could be up to $15 per week! Now leave the city of Presque Isle and go to Castle Hill, Chapman, Wade, Perham and Washburn – poor farming communities who are forced to join in the Pay-as-you-Throw program without any say. No notice was given in advance so if you had black or white bags you are just out the money. I went to Sam’s the week before I found out, so you know what a waste of money that was. These bags are sitting in the closet while I have to buy orange bags. As wages go up and the cost of living goes up and gas prices go up, we all know the price of the orange bags will go up, too.
Talk to your selectmen and city council and let them know this is not working. There has to be an alternative to this program. I’m all for recycling but it should be my choice. Get some of those color-coded recycle bins like Caribou has. There has to be another way.
Now, to top it all off, we have strangers going through our garbage. I don’t know about anyone else but that should be an invasion of privacy. Don’t we all put things in our garbage that we don’t want strangers going through? I know I do. With identity theft running rampant in the United States, it is scary knowing someone could be looking through my personal correspondence.
And as one last thing … shame on Presque Isle. Because of this program, Martha and Mary’s had to close their thrift shop, where clothes were given to people who could not afford to buy them. A wonderful program no longer there.
Sheena McHatten
Castle Hill
