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The large front-page photograph on your newspaper of Sunday under the heading of "Garbage Gamble" was quite educational in a way which I am sure was unintended by those who wish to advance their peculiar way of "cutting the budget." It shows a healthy-looking garbage pickup male holding small bags of garbage in each hand as he comes down the driveway to the street.
Look at that photograph. Do you see the incline of that driveway? That incline is fairly typical for most of the driveways in Gainesville. Now, in place of the hired garbage pickup person, can you see a frail elderly person pushing a 96-gallon garbage container up or down that driveway during a cold rainy day, which has been quite prevalent for the past five months, or even on a sunny day? Let's get real, people.
Surely, all of us realize that a huge percentage of the Gainesville population will simply get justified waivers from their doctors, attesting to the fact that this resident is physically unable to comply with this regulation. What then?
Is there a "Plan B" that can be quickly implemented when the true facts of the situation finally sink into the brains of the geniuses who are proposing to have the residents of Gainesville doing the work which they thought they were paying the city to do?
Henry R. Shields
Gainesville