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Garbage dispute is at top of pile
(by Dave Lange - September 02, 2010)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Garbage dispute is at top of pile
If you can judge communities by their controversies, there is the case of Russell Township and garbage.
At this time, some people in Chagrin Falls are disputing just about every aspect of plans to build a new police station -- from the location atop a one-time garbage dump and its $3.9 million price tag to whether dispatchers need restrooms.
The current brouhaha in Solon is over a judge's order to allow construction of three duplexes on 2.45 acres at the corner of SOM Center (Route 91) and Miles roads. The resistance movement gets to the very essence of American democracy and free-market capitalism, including such matters as judicial activism, legislative passivism, open government, property rights and majority rule.
Munson Township has its hands full with the age-old conundrum of green-space preservation for future generations vs. greens, tees and fairways preservation for golfing aficionados. Should the township accept a $5 million grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to acquire the 458-acre Fowler's Mill Golf Course and protect 1.2 miles of the scenic Chagrin River corridor or let the invisible hand of the market decide whether the current landowners choose development profits over greens fees?
Orange Village is awaiting divine intervention or political dissension in determining whether to acquire the former St. Margaret of Hungary Church property adjacent to its municipal complex for a new service department and additional parkland.
Citizens in Pepper Pike are looking to clean house at City Hall, where their government leaders had the misbegotten notion that raising taxes might be a good way to bail out the sinking municipal treasury.
But all such matters of ill dispute pale in comparison to the gruesome garbage, raging rubbish, terrible trash tyranny of Russell Township, where the citizenry is up in arms over being told by the evil government who has the authority to collect their refuse. A 2-1 majority on the Russell Township Board of Trustees has collaborated with one of the world's biggest, baddest waste haulers to boot smaller local competitors out of town and compel "the people in the cheap seats," as one trustee referred to them, to buy their garbage services from the company store.
Trustee James Mueller, who took a brief hiatus from his first-class seat to don a martyr's cap, said, "It takes political courage to make the changes that make the system better."
In typical liberal paternalism, Mr. Mueller and fellow Trustee James Dickerson said eliminating garbage competition will be good for people, because it will be cheaper, and good for the community, because there will be fewer heavy trucks causing wear and tear to the roads. So far, they're not ordering residents to shop at Wal-Mart, which is cheaper than Macy's, or banning Federal Express trucks from the roads, since the U.S. Postal Service already has a corner on the junk-mail market.
Some people in Russell are talking about legal action, even though Ohio law clearly gives townships the authority to enter into single-hauler garbage contracts. Some of them want to recycle a couple trustees into the cheap seats.
While trouble is just brewing elsewhere, Russell is ready for a tea party.
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