South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Response to coalition’s trash survey exceptional, coordinator says

My name is Tony Niskanen. I am the coordinator for the trash service questionnaire that was distributed throughout the county over the last two weeks on behalf of the Coalition to Improve County Trash Collection Services.

The response to the survey has been and continues to be exceptional. More than 10 percent of the questionnaires that were distributed in the Call Newspapers have been returned as of Sept. 26 and more keep coming in every day from homes in seven ZIP codes.

On behalf of the coalition, I wish to say thank you to the many residents who took the time to complete and mail back the forms.

The survey gave a short background on the county’s trash plan and asked three questions. Here are the results:

1) More than 99 percent of the respondents rated their current trash hauler as satisfactory.

2) More than 95 percent of the respondents said that — based on the limited information they had to date — that they would vote against the plan.

3) More than 90 percent said that they would like to see a referendum held on the plan so they could express their opinion.

Here are a few of the comments that were written in the margins of the form:

• “I am very particular on who my trash hauler is. I changed haulers three times until I got a good one … if I have to pay for this service, then I want to pay for the one I want.”

• “Our subdivision has only one hauler, but we have the option to switch as a group if not satisfied.”

• “If we are going to be forced to use a new trash hauler — they should only be ‘locally owned’ businesses, not owned by out-of-state corporations.”

• “We will work diligently to vote out of office any and all politicians backing this plan.”

• “I would favor a plan that will reduce the number of trash trucks and their noise hauling trash in my community.”

• “If this plan will increase the amount of trash that is recycled, I would vote for it.”

You can write to the Coalition to Improve County Trash Collection Service to express your opinion at P.O. Box 20161, St. Louis, Mo. 63123 or by e-mail at stltrash@sbcglobal.net.

Tony Niskanen

south county

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