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Takin’ out the trash

I’m not going to point out the meaningfulness of this change to the city- but, let’s just say that a certain masked man once held up an oversized Waste Collector’s Time Card in front of the City Commission in a galaxy long ago –

From today’s Dayton Daily News:

The Department of Public Works will reduce seasonal and temporary hires. Trash collection on holidays will be eliminated. The change in workflow will save the city about $300,000 in overtime pay.

“We started from scratch in Public Works. We had to rethink everything: staffing, equipment, hours of operation, collection services,” Earley said.

Annual waste collection fees for residents will go from $91 to $113, beginning with April bills. The rate hike will generate $1.3 million annually for the city.

About $30,000 was added in to the Public Works budget to fund 10 neighborhoods clean ups, reduced from 20 in 2009. Also, a proposal to reduce mowing vacant lots from 1.5 times per season to one, won’t happen.

via City leaders warn that Dayton is ‘still in volatile times’ [1].

Let’s make things clear- previously we paid “holiday pay” so trash collectors could work 4-6 hours on Thanksgiving and get paid for 8- at a pay rate at or above doubletime- we also did it on Presidents Day, Labor Day, the 4th of July, MLK day etc. The only day they didn’t pick up trash was Christmas- no other jurisdiction is this stupid. But, it’s a nice way to overpay no-skill workers for physical labor. The reason I call them no-skill (other than the drivers who are a little more talented- but not worthy of white collar pay)- is because routinely, citizens of Dayton begged for the opportunity (the above mentioned “neighborhood clean-ups”) to ride around on the same trash trucks to pick up what our “skilled” collectors missed.

The real question with this 25% hike in costs is if we are now at a point where turning in your city dumpster for a private one is a good idea. I think it’s time for whole neighborhoods to start deciding if we still want to pay for trash collectors that leave us with a job to do?

I won’t even start to discuss the pathetic cuts to parks and rec. It’s time to stop pretending to even having programs if you have no one working them. If you have kids- and you go look at what Kettering provides- you’ll see that your higher income tax isn’t buying you much.

If this is the best our city can do, we must start wondering if it’s worth having a city at all?

And here is 4 minutes of Greg and David discussing it (added at 12:25 pm) :

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jstults

A quick search found little roll-away’s for ~$95/month, with weekly pickup, so if you went in with 11 of your neighbors you’d save about $10 bucks a year.  Sound like a bit of a hastle for $10 a year.  Maybe there are better deals out there?

Teresa Lea

What about the new recycling plan they are supposed to be rolling out?