Letter to the editor: Clovis’ trash system doesn’t need change

Clovis’ trash system doesn’t need change

I have some questions and concerns regarding the proposed transition from Dumpsters to poly-carts:

• How will the city pay for the new carts and the new trucks to handle the new carts?

• Will schools, churches, hospitals, commercial properties, and apartment complexes still be allowed to use Dumpster? Will they be required to pay more for this service?

• Will families of four or more people be required to use a single cart even though they generate more trash than a household with only one or two people?

• The truck drivers will need to make at least three times as many stops to collect the same amount of trash. Will more trucks be purchased and will more drivers be hired in order to complete the same amount of trash pickup in the same amount of time?

• Who is responsible for picking up the trash in the street when a cart is knocked over by wind or vandals?

• Who is responsible for replacing a lost, stolen, or vandalized cart?

• Once the Dumpster are removed from the alleyways, will the city still spend money to perform maintenance on the alleyways to keep them passable for the utility companies that will continue to use the alleyways?

• Will the residential streets be upgraded to handle the weight of trash trucks using these streets on a regular basis to collect trash from the carts?

I have often had visitors from out of town, and one of the things they like about Clovis is the current trash collection system. I have lived in places with poly-carts, and they are definitely a worse system from a neighborhood appearance perspective than our current system.

It will be a mistake if Clovis decides to go with the poly-carts.