Ordiance being Considered in Garrett

[nathandiehl]

burgundy,
I have sent you a PM.
The 'relax' comment is located in my signature, so it appears on all posts, and was not directed at you at all.

By absolutely no means was I referring to you in by 'crummy people' comment. I apologize if I offended you.
I think Section 8 housing is a wonderful program, and I have frequently recommended people find Section 8 housing. I think Section 8 provides so many more benefits from the alternative. I'm glad you're there, and I wish you luck in your future career.

By 'crummy people', I was referring to those people who refuse to take their garbage can to the back of their house the night of pickup. In all likelihood, this is a much higher rate of people who aren't in Section 8 housing.

Again, my comment was not in the least generated as a follow-up to your comment, but in reference to the overall theme of this thread. And I apologize if I offended you.

FYI, my guess is that no one booted you, but that your session/cookie expired as you were typing. No biggie, it's happened many times to me on various boards.

[purdue]

I live in Garrett, and was one of those people that fought Nat. Serv-All on curbside trash pickup, but it was a done deal. One of the most compelling reasons was that we knew that most people would just leave their cans at the curb, just as they left their cans near the alley. I live on Cowen Street and at any point can drive six blocks down it and see almost every trash can out, every day. This is true of most of the city, though by now people don't pay much attention, but if you are looking for them you see them everywhere. If you don't think it's a big deal to push and pull a trash bin to the curb, I'm guessing you have a flat property. But if you are like us and the many other property owners throughout the city that have a significant hill on your property, you might want to consider what it is like to get the trash bin up and down it every week. Most of the people in my neighborhood never move it (just as they did when they were in the alley) because it's much easier to carry one bag of trash at a time to the bin than move it all the time. And who wants their trash can at the front of their house? It doesn't take a genius to see that the motivation is just as much money as aesthetics. Drive around the city and multiply $50 by all the empty trash bins that you see at the curb. Assume even half of those people consistently start pulling them in and you'll see where this is going. I'm looking for the city council to care about the people and include many considerations in this ordinance, such as options for those with special circumstances, and also be realistic about the enforcement. Someone else questioned this-how far from the curb? What city department will handle this? Will they be diverted from other duties to measure the distance from our trash bins to the curb on our non-trash days? I also hope there is research on the issue nathandiehl presented about not being able disconnect a person's utilities due to non-payment of a non-utility fine. Do we really need another hard to enforce, looks good on paper law on the books of the City of Garrett? This is just one in a line of many crazy things that have come from City Hall during the current administration, I urge others with these questions to contact our city representatives, and make sure you remember to vote in City elections in Nov. 2011 to get them out. I won't ruin the thread by going into detail about other issues but hope there is room for discussion about the government regulations in our city that are getting out of hand.

[cynicalfoe]

I live in Garrett, and was one of those people that fought Nat. Serv-All on curbside trash pickup, but it was a done deal. One of the most compelling reasons was that we knew that most people would just leave their cans at the curb, just as they left their cans near the alley. I live on Cowen Street and at any point can drive six blocks down it and see almost every trash can out, every day. This is true of most of the city, though by now people don't pay much attention, but if you are looking for them you see them everywhere. If you don't think it's a big deal to push and pull a trash bin to the curb, I'm guessing you have a flat property. But if you are like us and the many other property owners throughout the city that have a significant hill on your property, you might want to consider what it is like to get the trash bin up and down it every week. Most of the people in my neighborhood never move it (just as they did when they were in the alley) because it's much easier to carry one bag of trash at a time to the bin than move it all the time. And who wants their trash can at the front of their house? It doesn't take a genius to see that the motivation is just as much money as aesthetics. Drive around the city and multiply $50 by all the empty trash bins that you see at the curb. Assume even half of those people consistently start pulling them in and you'll see where this is going. I'm looking for the city council to care about the people and include many considerations in this ordinance, such as options for those with special circumstances, and also be realistic about the enforcement. Someone else questioned this-how far from the curb? What city department will handle this? Will they be diverted from other duties to measure the distance from our trash bins to the curb on our non-trash days? I also hope there is research on the issue nathandiehl presented about not being able disconnect a person's utilities due to non-payment of a non-utility fine. Do we really need another hard to enforce, looks good on paper law on the books of the City of Garrett? This is just one in a line of many crazy things that have come from City Hall during the current administration, I urge others with these questions to contact our city representatives, and make sure you remember to vote in City elections in Nov. 2011 to get them out. I won't ruin the thread by going into detail about other issues but hope there is room for discussion about the government regulations in our city that are getting out of hand.

All the concerned citizens of Garrett had better start going to the council meetings to state their opinions and not wait for the elections. By then it will be to late. I know Kendallville has curb side pickup but that is the garbage company rule. If you do not put it to the curb your garbage will not get picked up. I do not believe the city has an ordinance for this. The city does have a garbage ordinance that you could be cited for if your garbage accumulates to become a hazard. I really do not see garbage cans at the curbs all week.

[burgundystar77]

Nathan, I do/have apologized, p m, for taking that "crummy people" way out of proportion. My session/cookie expired; what's that? I do know some but not a whole lot about computers. Oh, man; now I know why I'm getting spam--I thought someone on here was deliberately "bumping" me off, so I challenged them to email me personally if they had a problem with me (the night I posted that, I received a rather nasty spam email)....haha, uummmm, ooops, my bad

[nathandiehl]

Nathan, I do/have apologized, p m, for taking that "crummy people" way out of proportion. My session/cookie expired; what's that? I do know some but not a whole lot about computers. Oh, man; now I know why I'm getting spam--I thought someone on here was deliberately "bumping" me off, so I challenged them to email me personally if they had a problem with me (the night I posted that, I received a rather nasty spam email)....haha, uummmm, ooops, my bad

I haven't had much experience with this forum software specifically, so I have to talk in generalities here without doing my research on the software.
It is possible that when you click on 'reply' you have a certain time limit to conclude your message. This may be 10 minutes, 20 minutes, etc. (I do not know what this board has set). But if you go longer than this period, your message will not be accepted, as the software is unable to determine who you are any longer.
I can go into the technical reasons for this to happen, but it does need to happen or else eventually the server would crash pretty often (or anytime some half-knowledgable person wanted to take it down), so this functionality is indeed required.
Hope that makes sense.
If it doesn't make sense, I wouldn't fret too much--it happens to the best of us on occasion.

[TLC528]

FYI, the vote for this ordinance was the first of 3 readings required to pass. The first reading passed with a vote of 4 - 1. Not ALL council members are in favor of this ordinance. I urge everybody both for and against to contact their appropriate council person and mayor to express their concerns. I also urge the citizens to attend the next council meeting and be heard.

Ted Christensen
4th District Councilman

[matt_s]

I haven't had much experience with this forum software specifically, so I have to talk in generalities here without doing my research on the software.
It is possible that when you click on 'reply' you have a certain time limit to conclude your message. This may be 10 minutes, 20 minutes, etc. (I do not know what this board has set). But if you go longer than this period, your message will not be accepted, as the software is unable to determine who you are any longer.
I can go into the technical reasons for this to happen, but it does need to happen or else eventually the server would crash pretty often (or anytime some half-knowledgable person wanted to take it down), so this functionality is indeed required.
Hope that makes sense.
If it doesn't make sense, I wouldn't fret too much--it happens to the best of us on occasion.

Once upon a time, the system was set to log you out after 20 minutes of inactivity if you were only on a session cookie and hadn't clicked the "remember me" box. If you get interrupted in the middle of a response, my suggestion is to go ahead and finish post but before you click submit simply select your text and do a ctrl-c to copy it. That way if you took too long all you have to do is paste it back in to a news post.

[HomeyG]

I live in Garrett, and was one of those people that fought Nat. Serv-All on curbside trash pickup, but it was a done deal. One of the most compelling reasons was that we knew that most people would just leave their cans at the curb, just as they left their cans near the alley. I live on Cowen Street and at any point can drive six blocks down it and see almost every trash can out, every day. This is true of most of the city, though by now people don't pay much attention, but if you are looking for them you see them everywhere. If you don't think it's a big deal to push and pull a trash bin to the curb, I'm guessing you have a flat property. But if you are like us and the many other property owners throughout the city that have a significant hill on your property, you might want to consider what it is like to get the trash bin up and down it every week. Most of the people in my neighborhood never move it (just as they did when they were in the alley) because it's much easier to carry one bag of trash at a time to the bin than move it all the time. And who wants their trash can at the front of their house? It doesn't take a genius to see that the motivation is just as much money as aesthetics. Drive around the city and multiply $50 by all the empty trash bins that you see at the curb. Assume even half of those people consistently start pulling them in and you'll see where this is going. I'm looking for the city council to care about the people and include many considerations in this ordinance, such as options for those with special circumstances, and also be realistic about the enforcement. Someone else questioned this-how far from the curb? What city department will handle this? Will they be diverted from other duties to measure the distance from our trash bins to the curb on our non-trash days? I also hope there is research on the issue nathandiehl presented about not being able disconnect a person's utilities due to non-payment of a non-utility fine. Do we really need another hard to enforce, looks good on paper law on the books of the City of Garrett? This is just one in a line of many crazy things that have come from City Hall during the current administration, I urge others with these questions to contact our city representatives, and make sure you remember to vote in City elections in Nov. 2011 to get them out. I won't ruin the thread by going into detail about other issues but hope there is room for discussion about the government regulations in our city that are getting out of hand.

Glad to see that there are at least two of us that feels this way about our present administration. The latest I heard that the trash bin can be kept no closer to the street then the edge of your house or garage, whichever is closer. The fine will be $25 first offense, $50 thereafter. Fine will not be added to utility bill, it will be collected by the Ordinance Violations Bureau.
Supposedly there is a form you can fill out for assistance if you are elderly or handicapped. Don't know if they'll have someone take care of your trash bin for you, seems like a waste of manpower. I sympathize with those that have to pull trash bins up and down hills. Fortunately for me, I live on a flat lot. Its going to be compounded when we get our winter snow and ice. I wanted to put up an 8 x 8, 6 foot high enclosure for the express purpose of hiding the trash bin. City Planner said "Sure, that'll be $25 for a fence permit."
On top of that, if I cemented in the posts, that's considered an "improvement" and they'll increase my property taxes. Cynical is right. We need to keep certain members of the city council, that's not part of the "good ole boy" gang, apprise of our feelings.

[armyda]

So you would rather pay 3 times or more for the Trash Contractor to come up to your house and haul your garbage away for you? And 3 or 4 trips carrying a trash bag to the curb is easier than rolling a bin out once a week?

How nice to find a community that prefers making their homes look trashy and knocking down the property values. After all, who would want to move into a neighborhood where everyone is too lazy to move a trash bin twice a week.

[jarhead]

This is definately closing the barn door after the horse is out, but.... I thought the old system of trash pickup in the alley worked pretty well. The main concern i got out of the change was that the trash co. was going to raise our rates a dollar or so a week. thank goodness we were saved by those that know whats best for others while taking away that convenience,creating hardships for many,traffic problems,the asthetics,and fines.