VIEWPOINTS A8 • NORTHEAST SUBURBAN LIFE • MARCH 11, 2015
Editor: Richard Maloney, rmaloney@communitypress.com, 248-7134
NORTHEAST SUBURBAN LIFE
CommunityPress.com
EDITORIALS | LETTERS | COLUMNS | CH@TROOM
Leaf-vacuum service in Montgomery would save money, help environment Last fall as we nursed our aching backs, some neighbors and I discussed how many neighboring communities have leaf-pickup service and don’t have to lift, stuff and stomp their leaves into bags or toters. We researched Montgomery’s financial ability to provide this service, and found the city has a $5 million surplus of taxpayer money beyond their own stated targets for cash reserves. As we continued our research, we were surprised to find leaf vacuuming would actually result in cost savings for the city. Eight weeks of leaf pickup under the current bagged-leaf system will cost $72,000 per year. Eight weeks of leaf pickup using a curbside leaf-
CH@TROOM THIS WEEK’S QUESTION A bill to allow cities to create open-container districts much like those in New Orleans or Memphis, Tennessee, appears likely to pass the Ohio Legislature this year, and Cincinnati officials hope the bill becomes law by Opening Day, April 6. Is this a good idea or a bad idea? Why or why not? Every week we ask readers a question they can reply to via email. Send your answers to rmaloney@community press.com with Ch@troom in the subject line.
March 4 question What TV show from your youth would you like to see remade, or re-broadcast? Why?
“Well I’d have to say ‘BJ and the Bear,’ mostly because there aren’t enough shows on TV that show smart primates being taken on the road as 18-wheeler travel companions.” C.S.
“I would love to see ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ remade because it was an exciting show to watch with good plots (for the time), cool gadgets and intelligent scripts. It would be OK to update it as long as they stay with the basic premise and feel and don't make it goofy. Too many remakes go that route and fail miserably.” M.J.F.
“There was a show titled ‘Watch Mr Wizard.’ It showed the science behind ordinary things in life. It was intended for grade school age kids. I think the concept would work today on the History or Discovery Channel. The great comedy shows of Dean Martin, Sid Caesar and Jackie Gleason et al might also work today. “Most other shows from that era would be stuck in that time warp and not accepted by today’s audiences. Go Figure!”
vacuum truck would cost less, as little as $26,000 per year. Read that last sentence again. Leafvacuum serSam Chamberlin vice will cost COMMUNITY PRESS less. Every GUEST COLUMNIST single year. This means that if we continue with the bagged-leaf system, Montgomery taxpayers will be paying as much as $46,000 annually for the “privilege” of bagging our leaves, rather than simply raking them to the curb for efficient recycling. Now, like the many residents who packed the January public-works meeting to ad-
vocate for leaf-vacuum service, you may support leaf vacuuming because you don’t want to spend any more fall afternoons lifting, stomping, grinding and bagging your leaves. You have better ways to spend your time. Like many of us, you may support a leaf vacuum because it would be more environmentally-friendly: the collected leaves would be used for mulch, and thousands of heavy-duty leaf bags would no longer have to be manufactured, shipped and dumped each year. Like many of us, you may want to save your back for playing with your kids or picking up your grandchildren, instead of unnecessarily straining to lift and carry
heavy bags of leaves. Even if you live in an apartment, or you pay a service to do all your yard work, or you have another system for disposing of your leaves on your own property, you still have reason to support leaf-vacuum service, because it would collectively save us as much as $46,000 every year. While it is true that the initial city estimate for this service was higher than using bags, their estimate assumed the use of an older, more laborintensive type of equipment. Our research found more efficient equipment that enables fewer units and fewer staff to operate. With this equipment, which many similarly-sized Ohio communities are successfully using today, the costs are
significantly lower than initial city estimates, and lower than what we are paying for today. This is an opportunity for the City of Montgomery to provide better, more convenient, more environmentallyfriendly service to residents that will improve their quality of life while also saving Montgomery taxpayers money. Even if you don’t care about saving time or saving your back, you should care about saving $46,000 per year. To learn more, see a leaf vacuum unit in action, sign our petition, or advocate for this service, please visit www.leafvacformontgomery.wix.com/ leafvac. Sam Chamberlin in a resident of Montgomery.
It is time to examine our values This is a very personal exercise. The idea is to evaluate ourselves before we criticize others. It is an exercise I used when teaching ethics. Before we begin, let me explain that I was a somewhat different type of teacher. I did not lecture on my thoughts and ideas, but rather caused students to think and to exercise their minds. Midterm and final exams were contained in the syllabus so that the students had time to think about the problems expressed and to question me and other students about their ideas. We had some very lively discussions. One rule was that any questionable topic was to be discussed in the third person. We are in a period of very questionable ethics. There are things we can change and
things that, hopefully, time will improve. There is no doubt that the world is in a very dangerous Edward situation that Levy affects all of COMMUNITY PRESS us. I don’t GUEST COLUMNIST mean to be overly fearful, but many situations seem to repeat this history before great wars or national calamities. History also indicates that proper actions could avoid these disasters. It could be that our personal values could make a difference. If that is so, it would be important for the majority of people to examine their personal values and adjust to the necessities of a better existence. Perhaps our biggest problem is the wide disagreement
between political parties. This is fed to a large extent by our stubborn political values. Politicians have always protected the political donors who became enablers and were protected by the recipients of their money. The customary devaluation of money has been a factor leading to many different miseries like genocide, war, and dictatorships. If politicians can be “bought” what about the general public? Let’s look into the mirror. Can we be bought? Well, we all have a price whether we want to admit it or not. Consider that one of your family has been kidnapped and you can save him by committing a murder. Would you do it? No answer is required. Some people have faced this issue. Simpler issues are money issues. We all face times when we are jealous of someone who has much more than us.
Just think about what you might do to acquire more money so that you could socialize in that crowd. Would it be worth it? What might be enough money to make you happy regardless of how you got it? The good news is most of us have had these thoughts, but were of enough good character to retain our morality. That is why we do this exercise. It makes us aware that others may not have the values we cherish and to be watchful of those who may fail our morality test. There is great satisfaction in our self imposed morality. “I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.” A valid quote from George Washington. Edward Levy is a resident of Montgomery.
Solving problems vs. political philosophizing Intransigent political pundits parroting the musings of ancient politicians are an unpatriotic lot who are not debating and resolving our country’s most pressing problems. You would think that repairing the infrastructure would be a very “conservative” thing to do. The far left doesn’t want petroleum products used in paving materials, and the far right does not want to pay for it. How are the one percent’s corporations going to move their goods without a proper infrastructure? How will their factories and offices obtain their water, electricity, gas and sewage? Does the one percent want their personal castles surrounded by moats filled with sewage? Wouldn’t the one percent prefer an environment within which they can fearlessly drive their Rolls Royces, top down, alone, hair whipping in the wind, to any desti-
nation, arriving safely? A 1950s service station attendant, with a family of four, could barely scrape by, working James Baker COMMUNITY PRESS seven days per GUEST COLUMNIST week, with no benefits, at minimum wage. This tells me that one component of improving our economy is higher pay for the lowest level of work. Today’s minimum wagers cannot support themselves, let alone a family, and they probably live with parents, grandparents, or share small apartments with others in their economic position. A typical office worker of the 1950s (well above minimum wage) owned a relatively new home and purchased a new Ford, Chevy or Plymouth every two or three years. Women did not work. They
managed the home, the family finances, and they helped to properly educate two to three children. Looking back 60 years, comparing that environment with today’s, that was one heck of an accomplishment. Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone and Andrew Carnegie were not flaming liberals. They paid their employees quite well. “No man becomes rich unless he enriches others.” – Andrew Carnegie Taxes were much higher in the 1950s. High taxes did not seem to thwart economic growth, investment, nor did they dampen the demand for products and services. Much of today’s infrastructure was built during the late ’40s, the ’50s and ’60s. Some polls claim that a “lack of jobs” is listed as the most important problem. Actually, it would be the “lack of demand for goods and services” that is the underlying
basis for fewer jobs. This lack of demand is the result of recent corporate and individual losses of assets, and a loss of confidence in their government, that has held down demand. Automation has also greatly influenced this lack of jobs. We have plenty of energy to be self-sufficient, yet we have no energy plan. Worse, we have no plan to become free of foreign suppliers. Who is to blame? Congress! The oil lobby! Apathetic citizens! Anarchists! Implementing the Pickens Plan, part of which advocates the use of LNG and CNG for all large vehicles would reduce our imports of oil by about 35 percent. It would clean up our air by about 50 percent, compared to the burning of diesel. What about the debt? James Baker is a 37-year resident of Indian Hill.
T.D.T.
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SUBURBAN LIFE
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