March 29, 2024

Newton paying too much for waste, recycling functions

To the editor:

Do we the home owners of Newton pay too much for our solid waste and recycling?

I for one feel we do so I sent an email to the mayor, council members and city administrator requesting that this function be made an enterprise fund so all revenues received for this function would have to be used only for solid waste & recycling.

Do you agree we pay too much?

Topic:

Function 541: Solid waste and recycling

As we are going into budget time for 2014/2015

I’m requesting that Function 541 be changed to an enterprise fund.

Over the last five fiscal years the home owners of Newton have paid $171,378 more for this service than the expenses incurred by the city. That amounts to an average of $34,275.60 per year.

This money could have been used for spring cleanups two or three times, not just put into the general fund to be used as they wish.

When a fee is collected for a specific service, that money should only be used for that service. As you can see that in the past this has not been the case. Making this enterprise fund, all fees collected must be used within that fund.

Des Moines home owners pay $11 for a 64-gallon container or $12 for a 96-gallon container, while we pay $11.20 for a 35-gallon container.

So if break that down to cost per gallon, Newton pays 82.8 percent more than Des Moines home owners on the 64 gallon container and 151 percent more on the 96 gallon.

If we had these size containers at this cost, it would do a lot in helping keep Newton clean and cost the home owner less.

Dennis Messick

Newton