Thursday, October 20, 2005

City's sanitation imbroglio examined in New Albany Today series.

Over at his New Albany Today blog, former 3rd District Councilman Maury Goldberg is making a game (and appreciated) effort to clearly explicate the fundamental issues that pertain to the Great Sanitation Primal Scream of 2005, including a consideration of the origins of municipal involvement in garbage collection and the pros and cons of privatization.

Mind you, this hasn't been a "debate" in any relevant sense, as there's no more of an appreciation for such a reasonable concept hereabouts as there is for simple irony, Gaelic football or movies without car chases.

From the beginning of this highly politicized chapter in recent New Albany history, there has been little willingness on the part of public officials or concerned residents to consider just one fundamental question: Given that municipalities in the state of Indiana have the right to collect garbage, is this a right the cities should exercise to the exclusion of other options?

Knee-jerking aside and political flim-flammery aside, neither is it an attack on hard-working sanitation workers, nor is it some variety of blasphemous scriptural heresy, to merely ask the question, "why?"

At least Maury's taking a stab at answering, and we thank him for the effort.

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