Published: July 04, 2008 09:37 pm            

Flashpoint: Monster trash bins in place, but we’re still holding the bag

Well, I knew it was going to happen. I could just tell from those big, blue battleships (trash bins) that Republic was leaving behind that there was going to be trouble with them.

First of all, they don’t fit. They are supposed to be more efficient but they make the alleys look all cluttered. And what are they going to look like when they get a little age to them? Just something else to make our alleys more atrocious.

Today is Monday and it’s the first day that I get to use this monster. I have tried to make room for it in the garage (to hide it) because I know some lazy idiot is going to come by and dump some of their “unwanted goodies” into it because they don’t have any trash service where they live, (camp site, their vehicle, overpass … I’ll let you pick).

Since I recycle, I have very little trash to put in the belly of this beast. I recycle on my own and I don’t need a paid service to come and pick it up for me and then go make money off of what I paid for them to pick up. Dropping off my separated recycles, that takes all of five minutes to prepare, at the ISU Recycle Center just does nothing but make sense to me. They take my unwanted cans and bottles for free and then they make money off of them to help support ISU. And besides, enough people are having trouble with the brown cans (another Republic joke). I want no part of that.

So now this blue mega-tub is sitting behind my house with one bag of trash. I told my wife, “This is going to be a mess, something is going to happen and it ain’t going to be pretty.”

Sometimes I hate it when I’m right.

I put the blue dumpster out about 7:30 a.m. I had some errands to run that morning so I left soon after. About 12:15 p.m. I return to see the Republic truck leave my alley. It wasn’t one of the new trucks that is supposed to handle the trash. They had some kid hanging off the back end that, I suppose, was to pick the trash up manually. Driving down the alley to my garage, I see everyone’s dumpster is moved except mine.

When I went to check on it I found that some “loser” had dumped their junk in my trash can. Since I hardly had anything in it, mine was the best choice. And this stuff was heavy. I had to tip over the dumpster to get it out. I don’t know what was in that bag, (either concrete or a body), but I wasn’t going to open it.

Now I have my bag and some loser’s junk because the boys at Republic didn’t want to lift it. So I try to call Republic and that is useless. It’s a recording (outsourced to God knows where) that doesn’t work. You can’t leave a message, the extensions go nowhere to no human, and I would grow old waiting for someone to pick up.

And don’t bother calling the mayor’s office, (whatever his name is, you never, ever hear anything about what he’s doing). I tried calling there, got a nice lady on the phone that took my name and number and I’ll never hear from that office again.

So, I’m left holding the bag and someone else’s trash. Once again, it’s up to the taxpayer on the street to handle the problem as best they can. We are now to spend the next 20 years dealing with an incompetent organization that is supplying a bulky, practically unusable product and refuses to give any real customer service.

And by the way, now that we are stuck with these “professionals”, who was the political “joker” who signed these people up on a 20-year contract. Was there any kind of study on this matter? Was there any questions asked to the general public (I must have been out of town), did anybody ask anybody for their opinion?

Wait. It just came to me how I can cure my own situation. Walk out on my loan (foreclosures are very trendy these days), pick up an old mobile home real cheap and move out of town. Living will be pretty inexpensive. At least I’ll know where to dump my trash.

Good luck, Terre Haute.

— Melvin Long

Terre Haute

        

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