DONALD ANDERSON: City starts new year on the wrong foot

A few months ago, our mayor and other city council members were reelected to their respective seats, each vowing to continue providing the same level of commitment that they had in their previous term. So, how have they started off a New Year of that service? By planning to once again provide you with another disservice.

In their December meeting, the council started to become more vocal in laying the groundwork for making changes to the current recycling program based on recommendations from a committee that was formed in July 2023 consisting of two city council members and other members of the community to include the mayor’s wife (which should possibly be seen as a conflict of interest in my opinion given her relationship to the mayor in connection with this matter).

The purpose of that committee was to discuss a solution to the $100,000 in annual loss in the recycling program. That figure would eventually be expanded to $300,000 by a year-end news report, leaving me to wonder if that number is being inflated to encourage the stoppage of curbside pickup. The committee initially reported that about 250 citizens had their recycle can removed for repeated rules violations and only 14 citizens called to request that their recycle can be returned.

In the December report, the committee recommended in its place that two drop-off sites should be built and that the burden of recycling within the city limits should be solely on the citizens who are already paying increased sewer/utility fees, struggling to make ends meet, and a vast majority who simply do not have the time to load up smelly recyclables in their vehicle to be dropped off. The building of these two drop-off sites could cost anywhere from $350,000 to $500,000 each in addition to yearly operating fees and the cost of staffing; meaning that the city council would be spending almost three to 10 times the amount of money it’s losing for this plan with no guarantee that the new concept will produce any cost-saving benefits.

Years ago, the city council wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on utility boxes it could never use due to a compatibility issue with the system at that time. And then there is the still controversial city hall issue of 2017, which saw citizens overwhelmingly oppose the wasteful spending of over $10 million on a city hall project when there were other alternatives that the city council refused to yield to.

When you consider their history on the matter of fiscal budgeting, city leaders have not learned their lesson on being good stewards of the people’s money. Once again, it appears that these same leaders are bent on repeating the same mistakes, as they are moving forward with discussions and even so doing it in a manner that appears to favor them more than citizens; by scheduling an input session to discuss this matter on March 19 at 4:30 p.m.

Honestly, ask yourself this: Where will you be at on this particular date and time? Most likely at work, picking up your children from school or sports practice, running errands because you haven’t had any other time to get it done because you are too busy any other time, or distracted with something else you believe is more important than coming to a special city hall meeting to convince five city council members and a mayor to not cut out a vital city service.

This idea to suspend recycling services to citizens living in the city limits is yet another disservice in a long line of disservices that these leaders are doing in the name of being decent public servants. They will tell you that this decision affects them as well, but look at the make up of the current city. Most of them are empty nesters, some retired, others with flexible schedules, and yet still even those who would probably not even utilize the drop-off sites, but could care less about the issue and just dump everything in the trash can.

I can be direct and tell you now, if they decide to move forward and stop the current recycling program, there will be one person guaranteed NOT to participate and his trash can will be brimming with plastic bottles, paper products, and glass jars weekly. You can count on that and maybe you should consider doing the same thing. Your time should mean a lot to you, but to these so-called leaders, it means nothing but burdening you with more problems than what you already have.

Editors note: Donald Anderson’s opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Laurinburg Exchange.