Time for city to scrap trash-disposal scheme
To the editor:
I have these few small items which I’d like to throw away but they don’t quite fit into one of those orange trash bags.
Now, do I understand that I’ve got to — for the rest of my years — shoehorn, if you will, those items into my subcompact car, drive out to the landfill, fork over about $10 (I’m guessing here) and then navigate through the muddy (very dusty, if dry) road which leads to a very smelly site then have to stand in mud (when wet) to dispose of my few items? And not to mention the lousy road — most of which is unpaved and very rough — which leads from the Chapman Road to the landfill.
My goodness, it’s about a 10-mile round trip from my house to the landfill. With gasoline now approaching $4.25 a gallon, I reckon the cost of disposing those few items is fairly expensive. Jeez, I liked it the old-fashioned way, you know, placing those little items which don’t quite fit into those orange bags streetside and having my designated trash hauler whisk ‘em away.
Now, Caribou has a real fine disposal scheme based on the old-fashioned way: One can pay $16 a month for pickup and the haulers will take practically any household items, except, of course, appliances and those sorts of things. Or, one can go to the town hall and purchase a sticker for $5 which allows one to self-haul to the Tri-Community Landfill in Fort Fairfield. That $5 sticker entitles you to take anything, in any amount per haul for a whole year. Now that’s a deal and Caribou-ites are happy campers regarding trash disposal.
What’s good for Caribou should be good for Presque Isle, right? Not only that, but the Tri-Community Landfill is open Saturdays.
Seems to me that since there are so many disgruntled residents of Presque Isle concerning our city manager’s misconceived trash-disposal scheme, that he perhaps should take a break, lean back and consider the wishes of the masses (residents) and dream up another more acceptable scheme to better satisfy those masses. Consider the old way, which was (is) lots better than the present. Make friends, not enemies, while you’re the city manager.
Dick Graves
Presque Isle
