City Needs To Explain Trash Rates

Regarding your newspaper’s editorial “Trash service concerns warranted” (Dec. 15):

In the editorial, you noted that Bentonville is contracting out their trash collection services at $13.48 per 96-gallon bin, while Fayetteville, who handles trash collection in-house, costs the city $18.96 per 96-gallon bin.

This means that Fayetteville is paying 40 percent more than Bentonville for our trash collection! This is an unacceptable cost difterentiation by the city of Fayetteville in these lean times.

By logic, considering the volume of trash collected in Fayetteville, one would estimate that it must be costing the cityof Fayetteville millions of dollars in extra costs over what we could save by contracting out the trash collection service!

I’d much rather this wasted money go to the city employees to keep high-quality talent or other city programs such as the trails.

The city needs to be honest with the public and take bids to see exactlyhow much could be saved by contracting out trash collection and do what is in the public’s best interest.

There is some serious explaining needed from the city of Fayetteville as to why we’re paying 40 percent more than Bentonville for the same service.

CHARLES AXTELL

Fayetteville