Letters to the editor

Give Fairfield residents smaller trash cart option

To the editor:

WASTE MANAGEMENT, Fairfield’s city trash collection service, has proposed a new five-year contract to support their pending upgrade to automated collection trucks. This system would reduce the staff requirement per vehicle from two workers to one, which would trim their payroll.

Meanwhile, they plan to raise our rates 3.5% each year. But wait, there’s more. Each household would receive one 96-gallon container, which is the size of our HUGE recycling cans. In response to customer objections, Waste Management has included a second choice of their 65-gallon can.

Meanwhile, the 65-gallon can is still twice the capacity that many households need, and much more challenging to negotiate than the 32-gallon container, which is preferred by many homeowners. So is this a fair choice?

Most importantly, some homeowners with physical limitations and/or long driveways--especially gravel driveways, will barely be able to roll either size of those large containers to the road and back every week.

Apparently Waste Management didn’t consider the limitations of this plan. Should we all have to wrestle with an industrial size container even though many households generate just 1 or 2 bags of trash per week?

Waste Management claims the smaller size cans are more vulnerable to the grip of the automated collection “arms.” Yet their website shows a sturdy looking 32-gallon container that's still used by some of their customers around the country. So why not us?

Waste Management also claims that too many container sizes make their business too complicated, so two choices are the limit. But as a nationwide company, they must have “idea” people on the payroll to solve these challenges. OR… they could just ask me. Here’s the solution.

Instead of offering us a choice of two oversized containers, let us choose between a big container and a small one. The big container would be the 96 (or the 65, whichever of those will make the most “big choice” customers happy); the small container would be the 32-gallon. Done.

Waste Management’s automated trucks, as well as their bookkeeping, would be dealing with two container sizes, which they are willing to do. And these two choices have a far better chance of satisfying the whole town.

Fairfield city residents, we want to hear from you. Please join the Public Forum for “trash talk” this Monday, January 27, from 6:30-7 p.m. at Fairfield City Hall. And bring your neighbors and friends who live in the Fairfield city limits. When a vital town service changes the rules, shouldn’t they continue to serve our needs? Let's be heard.

Patricia Draznin

Fairfield resident and Waste Management customer

Pray for an end to abortion

To the editor:

Prior to the Supreme Court ruling of Roe v. Wade in 1973, abortion was prohibited in 33 states and only allowed in special circumstances in 13 others. With the passage of Roe and its companion case, Doe v. Bolton, abortion became legal in all states during all 9 months of pregnancy.

After many years of prayers and March for Life events, the wrongfully decided abortion law was finally overturned in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson's Women's Health Organization on June 24, 2022, - but not before the lives of more than 63 MILLION preborn babies were lost to the cruel procedure of abortion. This number is based on data from the CDC and the Guttmacher Institute.

Thankfully, since 2022, 14 states have passed near total abortion bans and six states have implemented other limits on abortion.

Medical advances since 1973 show how quickly a baby develops in the womb, with a heartbeat detectable at 5 ½ weeks and brainwaves at 8 weeks.

In Texas alone, according to Texas Values, it is estimated that 110,000 babies have been given a chance at life and saved from the brutality of abortion since 2022. Laws do matter!

As the anniversary of the now defunct Roe v. Wade approaches, we must do even more to save the precious lives of our preborn brothers and sisters. Educate yourself. Support the pregnancy centers in Ottumwa (Heartland Pregnancy Center) and Cradle of Hope (helping women in Jefferson and Henry Counties). Promote adoption.

If the egg of an eagle or a sea turtle is protected by law - don't you think a preborn human baby deserves protection as well, at all stages of development?

Pray for the day abortion becomes unthinkable and that all states vote to protect the most precious gift of all - a preborn human baby!

Karen Crossland

Member of Jefferson County Right to Life