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City of Gainesville leaders, please wake up and think about what you are asking of the fine residents of our city.
Have you driven around town to see that all the driveways are not level or even close to the street? What are you thinking when you consider requiring the senior citizens who are trying to maintain an independent lifestyle to manage a 96-gallon container to and from the curb?
These fine folks are already living on a fixed income and trying their best to manage their lives and should not have to pay a premium for backdoor service. How on earth are they supposed to handle the big container with swollen, achy, arthritic hands and feet in any type of weather?
Do any of you have elderly parents living in the city and if so, are you going to make sure their container gets moved back and forth each and every week? Probably not, if you have even considered this motion for half a second.
Surely, there are jobs costing the city much more than the four sanitation workers earn. We have all had to make sacrifices in these difficult economic times, so why not a pay cut for some of the higher-paid jobs? Just that act alone would save the jobs of the four workers and we would not have to pay for newly fitted trucks or 96-gallon containers for every house in the city.
Please find it in your hearts to reconsider this action. As Mammy said in "Gone with the Wind," "It ain't fittin'. It just ain't fittin'.'"
Melinda H. Gravitt
Gainesville