By Trent Rosser
Earlier this week the City Council in Amarillo proved again, that they hear the citizens, but don’t listen. The council UNANIMOUSLY approved the use of carts and replacing dumpsters across certain areas of town. Citizens across the board have been in an uproar since the program was first proposed. So, naturally a good leader would listen to the citizens and vote no on something like this. Instead, the city council hears us, but instead, listens to the new Public Works Director, Raymond Lee, and his proposal for the cart system that will eventually cost more than $2 million just for the first phase.
Mr. Lee started at the City of Amarillo in February of 2017. He brings in over 10 years of experience from Dallas, Texas. Mr. Lee has also acted like a Councilmember and he hears the complaints and concerns from the citizens, but he is not listening. I had a chance to talk to Mr. Lee for just a few moments at the Council meeting this past Tuesday and asked him a few questions. First of all, why are we trying to make this change? If it is not broken, you don’t fix it.
He replied, “The system is broken. It just has not been made public.”
I believe that if it was broken, it would have been made public a very long time ago.
I understand that there are dumpsters in the front of some homes, and I do believe that a scheduled pick up would work there. But, make sure that there is a dumpster at the end of the block, so citizens can throw away their items between pickups. Yes, we do need to fix a few things with the sanitation, but if a car has a broken headlight, you fix the headlight. You do not design and buy a new car. He also mentioned that the City cannot replace the dumpsters fast enough. You can fix them, you do not need to buy a new one each time the bottom rusts out. As some of you know, years ago I worked for the City of Canyon. Before I was with the water department, I was with street and sanitation department.
This is how it worked: when the trash truck driver went down the alley and saw bulk items, he would put in a work order for it. Every morning, the bulk item truck would pick up all the work orders and start picking them up. If the trash truck driver seen a dumpster that needed to be replace or repaired, he would submit a different work order. We would pick that dumpster up, leave a good one and take the bad one back to the shop. At the shop, a welder would cut the rusted-out bottom of the dumpster out and weld a new bottom on the dumpster. It would then go back out to another location or be put in storage until needed. I understand that sometimes you do have to replace dumpsters, but you will also need to replace carts. When I mentioned this to Mr. Lee, his reply, to paraphrase, was that Amarillo is not Canyon.
You are correct Mr. Lee, it is not Canyon, and you know what else it is not? It is not Dallas!
Another issue was the wind. The average wind speed in Dallas is 10.7 MPH. Does Mr. Lee not realize that according to the Weather Channel, Amarillo is the windiest city in the United States with an average of 13.6 MPH and wind gust well over 30 MPH? Mr. Lee says that the wind will not be an issue, but if you look on youtube, there are many videos of trash carts blowing down the street from the wind (also videos of trash trucks destroying the carts. Who will have to pay for that? The citizens?). The lids themselves will fly up and trash will go everywhere. I have seen where a couple of dumpsters have spilled a little trash when the dumped them, but nothing compared to when the lid comes off the cart as it is being dumped and the trash is flung across the entire truck itself. Are the drivers going to get out and pick it all up? Probably not. If they are heavy enough to withstand the wind, then how will the elderly and disabled haul them to the curb? I checked online and found that they do have programs to help with this in other cities that have implemented this program. There were many requirements to qualify, and a long wait time to be approved. Who is going to pull the cart for them until they are approved? What would the regulations to qualify for that here be? Are we going to be fined and arrested for not moving the cars at certain times?
Something else was brought up as well. The trash trucks are too big to get down the alleys. We were told that it is a hazard because of the gas meters and overhead lines going across the alley. Really? That wasn’t an issue before. Did we get bigger trash trucks? If so, who is the Einstein that decided to do that? The lines going across the alley are the responsibility of the power, cable and telephone companies. They are responsible for ensuring that the lines do not hang down. As for the gas meters, when did they start putting them in the middle of the alley. Why are they hitting so many lately? I can understand an accident every now and then, but what the Public Works Department is saying is that the drivers are hitting of the gas meters on a continuous basis. If so, who oversees training the drivers?
One last thing is something that I know of for a fact. San Angelo, Texas is a beautiful town. It too has a cart system. It also has trash blowing around, and it has a major cockroach problem. Hence the issue. You must have your cart by your home. As the trash builds up over a few days, the flies and roaches are closer to your home. Therefore, they come into your home and when there is one, there are many. Roaches will no longer be near or in the dumpster, but now they will be right next to your house. Roaches can also squeeze in small cracks and crevices in your home and now we will be spending more money on exterminators. So, now we not only have more trash blowing around in the city, we will have a roach infestation as well.
“As leader for the city, city council members have a duty to listen to the citizens about issues, concerns, and solutions for the city. No one person has all the good ideas, and I believe we need to hear every citizens idea.”
This is from Mayor Nelson’s web page when she was running for office. So, when will the city leaders start listening? As for now, I want to personally thank the City of Amarillo, Mayor Ginger Nelson, and Councilmembers Freda Powell, Elaine Hays, Howard Smith and Eddy Sauer, as well as the city manager Jared Miller, for the trash issues that our future generations will have to fix. Again, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. If it is a flat tire, just fix the tire, no need to buy a new car.
Photo by Thomas Warren III