Canton voters to decide whether they want ‘communist’ garbage service

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I knew how this was going to turn out;

Residents of Canton want to overturn the city commission’s decision to implement municipal-run garbage services to pay for a pool project. The question will head to a special election.

While municipal garbage is a good concept, and would save residents money, taking those savings from them to fund a pool is not such a great idea. Heck, one city councilor called it communism;

“We want to stay independent and have that hometown feeling. … We could maybe get a kickback from the bank if we all went to the same bank. We could get a kickback if we all went to the same hardware store,” Garbers said. “People, that’s communism.”

Not quite Clem, but I see where you are going with this. Municipal garbage is actually a good idea, especially for smaller towns and could save residents a lot of moolah, where it gets complicated is the crazy SOVIET era idea of paying for pools with garbage fees (I think he is confusing our school bond elections with garbage service). It is NOT communism, but I would agree with Commissioner Garbers, it isn’t right.

Why not build a smaller pool? Or better yet, get some private donors? And keep the municipal garbage and pass the savings onto the residents. Everyone wins in the suburb of Harrisburg.

Canton proposes building swimming pool with garbage fees

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You got to hand it to them for being creative;

  • Right now, Canton has private garbage services, meaning residents choose whichever provider they’d like to come collect their trash.
  • In a city-run garbage collection system, Canton would put out a bid to trash collectors and choose the lowest offer.
  • Because the city would take care of billing logistics, Gannon anticipates collectors would offer much lower rates to the city than they’re able to offer directly to customers.
  • Customers’ bills won’t go up, but because costs are lower, the city would have extra income from garbage collection to then help pay for the pool.

While I will leave it up to the citizens of Canton to determine if they want to pay for their pool with garbage fees, I do support the idea of municipal garbage. I have argued for a long time that if the City of Sioux Falls did this you would save consumers because the billing could be processed thru your water bill and the private contractor(s) the city would hire wouldn’t pay tipping fees and would have shorter planned routes.

I also would implement a city ambulance service since right now the city is already assisting in mutual aid, sometimes showing up before the private ambulance, and we are getting NO reimbursement from the private ambulance provider for our aid.

Some argue against having these services provided by the city, but if done correctly they can be very beneficial and cost effective for citizens.