The Observation Deck

Gary Rice wrote:Your point about employee injury is well taken too, but I would wonder about what will happen if a resident is injured while trying to move a can?

Gary, since I would wager most residents already have to move their current trash cans at least a little (put them farther down the driveway behind the cars, pull them out from garage, etc), I fail to see how the risk, if there is even any, is greater with the new system than the old.

I would think very few residents didn't have to move their trash cans before.

I just thought of something. What about the people on Lewis who have no driveway? I know they share a back driveway lot thingy because they go up a driveway on Waterbury. What are they to do? Lug those big dumpsters down the steps of that huge hill? Or will we on Waterbury get extra dumpsters on our streets because of it?

And this may make me seem like I am a pain or a "b" word, but I refuse to pay for an extra can if I fill the new one. I already went out and got 2 extra cans for the rescue and I dont really have the money to buy more cans because "someone" decided to change the game. That just isnt really fair. And yeah I know life isnt fair, but still.

Missy,

I believe it was said someplace that if you have more trash than will fit in the can, you may just place an extra bag or whatever next to it.

And obviously I have no idea about that particular Lewis/Waterbury situation, but I know they're still working on the kinks for some places (like really narrow streets and such), so who knows. I'm sure they'll come up with something...

Yeah somehow I missed that one. I think when I read "get another one for a price" all the other words went out of my head. It has been one of those weeks. UGH.

Missy, as I said in my last post

Missy,

As for your 4 large garbage cans a week. The new ones should hold at lest the amount of two of them and the city can provide another one. Normally I think they charge for an additional can but maybe you can see if you can get an acceptation (due to the nature of your business). If not they say any garbage that dose not fit in the new dumpster can be put into an old can and put out the way it always has been. Maybe if you do this long enough they will just give you a second one for free so they don’t have to get out to get your extra cans every week.

I would add if you have been moving 4 cans a week 2 or three should be a nice change.

although my initial reaction was a negative one to this whole trash pick-up issue, I thought I'd withhold judgment until I'd done it for a while. However, now that I've received the gigantic thing it's clear that I'll have to move the cars out of the driveway in order to move the thing from the back to the front. Clearly a lot more hassle and potentially more risk with a couple of cars with hazards on blocking the road while I do this. Obviously if you park on the street or in a garage or have more property it's not an issue, but I suspect there are a number of folks like me.

Jeff Dreger wrote:although my initial reaction was a negative one to this whole trash pick-up issue, I thought I'd withhold judgment until I'd done it for a while. However, now that I've received the gigantic thing it's clear that I'll have to move the cars out of the driveway in order to move the thing from the back to the front. Clearly a lot more hassle and potentially more risk with a couple of cars with hazards on blocking the road while I do this. Obviously if you park on the street or in a garage or have more property it's not an issue, but I suspect there are a number of folks like me.

If you paint some flowers on it, can you disguise it in the garden? Neighbors garden?

If you paint some flowers on it, can you disguise it in the garden? Neighbors garden?

If I just let it look like trash it would be well disguised in the neighbor's "garden"

and not to be negative (but it's one of those days), but I can't imagine trying to do this in the snow with such an enormous, bulky, awkward, off-balance cart on the snow/ice that has to be dragged/lifted onto the inevitable snowbank on the tree lawn. As it is I ran out of places to put snow several time this last winter... now it looks like I'll have to shovel a quarter of my tree lawn (and I'm trying to picture how this works on the side of the road with parking? even just dropping these off they had to go around vehicles.)

Don't think of it as snow, think of it really cold rain. That should help.

Jeff Dreger wrote:and not to be negative (but it's one of those days), but I can't imagine trying to do this in the snow with such an enormous, bulky, awkward, off-balance cart on the snow/ice that has to be dragged/lifted onto the inevitable snowbank on the tree lawn

Not to worry. The official brochures tell you to "wait a week" if there's too much snow. It's a good thing we live in a place where there's hardly any snow, and when it does come, it all melts every couple of weeks just in time for trash day.

I love this discussion. The sky will fall. The sun won't rise.
The snow will pile up on my tree lawn. Oh my!

Maybe it's just me, but with all that's wrong with the world right now, all we can do is complain for endless pages about a garbage can?

Boy our lives must be great and care-free in Lakewood.

I don't recall seeing anything about the sky falling in these posts.

It's one thing to "waste time" voicing our opinion about what our government does in issues both big and small... but I have to laugh at the folks that spend their precious moments complaining about the "complainers". The implication here is that you should only have negative things to say about the single biggest problem in the world.

if my life was care-free then this wouldn't bother me in the least... but as I'm already being nickeled and dimed out of my time, any additional hassle (even seemingly small to others - perhaps people that don't have to move cars just to take their trash out) is looked at skeptically

if it turns out that the city saves a bunch of money, then that would be great - but that remains to be seen... and it does remove one of those little quality of life perks that used to help attract folks to the city (maybe this by itself won't turn people away, but the slow erosion of these things will just end up making us the same as any other 'burb)

Jeff Dreger wrote:if it turns out that the city saves a bunch of money, then that would be great - but that remains to be seen... and it does remove one of those little quality of life perks that used to help attract folks to the city (maybe this by itself won't turn people away, but the slow erosion of these things will just end up making us the same as any other 'burb)

I'm skeptical that it will save as much as advertized.

However, the new cans are attractive, easy to handle, large enough for most people and easy to handle. Are the savings worth the loss of a long time service. I don't know. If $500,000 a year is saved then its worth it. In five years that's $2.5 million. What would you do with the extra money?

Like most things with this administration it was well done.

I would think that we might just be watching that "saved" money evaporate up in smoke with litigation.

It's one thing for people to move their OWN cans around hither and yon.

It's quite another to be FORCED to move a heavy (even unloaded, these things weigh a fair amount.) object OWNED BY THE CITY.

Yes people can (and should) request assistance, if they need to. But how will they know if they NEED to, in many cases?

So many other questions remain about all of this that are still unanswered.

I, and others, do not even NEED to post them again.

They will ALL be answered in due course.

One way or another, I suspect.