I have lived in the town of Innisfail for approximately 18 years. I work and shop in the area and when we decided to move here we checked out other small towns that were close to work. We decided on Innisfail because of the cleanliness and the beauty of the town. We were also impressed with how the town was managed and what it had to offer. But now I am having my doubts. After reading the local paper on Feb. 21 about the garbage pickup stopping and we have to get a private company to provide the service, I was shocked.
The town council is showing prejudice and is discriminating against renters who live in fourplexes. This attack started before Christmas when they took away our opportunity to recycle or charging us a big fee if we take it to the dump. NOW THE GARBAGE.
When will it stop — when every multi-residential property is torn down and single-family homes are built on the land?
I have noticed several places in town that have the green or blue bins but these places have the space or they have been designed to accommodate the bins. There are places like mine that have no back alley and/or overhead wires to accommodate a bin. One must give up a parking space or place a bin in front of the building or block the alley.
The mayor stated that the reason for these changes is "we are not equipped to handle it all and it isn't fair to the taxpayers to carry the burden." The tenants of our building pay $64 a month (no recycling) for the service and a single dwelling only pays $18 a month (with recycling) for the same service. A person must have it emptied at least twice a month due to the summer smell and others dumping their garbage in it because they don't want to pay the extra for the four garbage bags. A private service is going to cost approximately $50 to $100 a month depending on the pickup service. This will possibly result in higher rent for renters or another expense for low or fixed income families or senior residents.
When it comes to burdening the taxpayer, I am sure my landlord is a taxpayer in Innisfail and I hope this will result in lower taxes for her when everyone else's taxes goes up!
Gail McCoy
Innisfail
A multi-residential property renter
