It was a two hour tug of war in Wapakoneta Tuesday evening between the concepts of “If it’s broke, let’s get rid of it” versus “If it’s broke, let’s fix it.” The “it” being the city’s refuse and recycling program.
In a joint meeting of the Wapakoneta City Council’s Finance and Utilities Committees, residents brought their opinions on how to make the system work or how an outside contractor would be better — or at least cheaper.
The meeting started off with an overview of electric rates, which paled in comparison to the discussion on refuse and recycling. A story on electric rates will appear in Thursday’s newspaper.
Utilities Committee Chair and At-Large Councilman Rodney Metz kicked off the refuse/recycling discussion by explaining how costs are broken down.
One chief complaint from residents is that the bags the city uses are too expensive. Metz explained that the bag fee goes into covering the cost of other services and also to provide an incentive to recycle.
The bag haters, it turns out, also don’t care for the...