Trash

Dear Editor: I would like to ask the city of Danville to please not bring a 95-gallon container for my garbage or recyclables. A 5-gallon container would be better. I have no way of getting a container that large to the curb, and I do not have anywhere to store it out of sight. It would take me at least three or four months to half-fill such a container. I think that the mayor and commissioners would be happy to help the city out (as they are in dire need) by giving up their dental coverage and paying 10 percent of the premium for their health insurance.

Rising oil prices have caused businesses across the country to increase prices for the services they provide and local citizens have begun to feel that pinch as well. So it should come as no surprise that beginning in July, the cost of trash pick-up in Jessamine County will increase as well. A yearly contract approved by the Jessamine County Fiscal Court Tuesday, with Rumpke Waste Collection & Disposal Systems for July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009 called for an across-the-board 4.5 percent increase.

The Winchester Board of Commissioners is requesting more input on garbage pickup times in the downtown area before taking any action in the matter. City staff mailed surveys to downtown customers of Winchester Municipal Utilities earlier this month asking for feedback about the garbage collection schedules. Commissioners reviewed a summary Tuesday showing that about 43 percent of respondents prefer a morning pickup while about 20 percent preferred pickup in the afternoon. Another 36 percent weren't concerned.

One man's trash is not always another man's treasure. At least it isn't for Chuck Rowe, interim corps administrator for the Danville Salvation Army. To Rowe, trash is trash, and it has become a real problem at the army's drop boxes for donated items. "Some people are using our drop boxes like they use the (solid waste) convenience centers or Dumpsters," Rowe says. "They are dumping their trash from their kitchens and other places in the home into those boxes. "When I tell people that we're finding trash in our drop boxes, they think I'm referring to trashy sofas or trashy clothes," he says.

Over the past 18 years, the annual Kentucky River Sweep has become something of a tradition in Clark County. But Solid Waste Coordinator Gary Epperson hopes to never do it again. "It's 18 years in a row that we have had to pick up trash," he said. "Wouldn't it be nice if you didn't have to do things like that?" Organizers staged the sweep on Saturday as part of a statewide effort to collect litter that accumulates along the banks and degrades the river's water quality and appearance.

Mayor John W.D. Bowling found a way to give city employees merit pay raises - charge businesses for trash collection. Some have their trash picked up daily and others once a week. City Manager Darrell Blenniss said Tuesday at a special meeting that he believes the city could collect $40,000 -$45,000 for the service. Commissioner Terry Crowley said it would be hard to give raises to city employees, who have hefty benefit packages, when many taxpayers haven't received raises in years.

The annual Kentucky River Sweep on Saturday brought out 130 volunteers in Clark and Madison counties who picked up 30 tons of trash from along the riverbanks. More than 1,200 pounds of metal was recycled.Clark was one of 24 Kentucky counties that participated. The event is part of the largest river cleanup in the nation where 3,000 miles of shoreline in six states are cleaned. Clark County has 18.9 miles of shoreline along the Kentucky River. Sue Elliston, the River Sweep coordinator for the Kentucky River Authority, said the event was successful.

The youth of Dix River Church of Christ have chosen again to pick up trash on our roadways not only to earn money for a great cause, but to make our county a prettier and cleaner place to live. This also gives our young people an opportunity to learn responsibility as well as learning leadership and the ability to work together as a team to accomplish a job that needs to be done. At the beginning of our pick up day, our youth group looks upon this as a "terrible job. " This is their "spring break" you know.

A sniper squirrel cartel has become the bane of my dog's existence. And therefore mine as well. Four of the world's most deviant creatures sit in my tree tops and hurl half-eaten walnuts at anyone walking slowly or wearing white out of season. Bring your canine horror stories of trash-strewn yards, chewed-up furniture, children sold to gypsies. They pale in comparison. My border collie is a squirrel junkie, and our lives will never be the same. Briggin's secret ambition is not to conquer my house (check)