Is Once A Week Trash Pickup Working For Lawton?

Driving around Lawton, does it seem like it's trashier than normal? I mean, every city fights a battle with littered refuse, and Lawton's no stranger to that having such a high ratio of renters to homeowners, but is it getting worse since the City of Lawton went to once a week trash pickup?

I'm curious who even came up with this plan and how they expect it to save money, but what would you expect from a local government that recommended wearing bandana Covid masks but then banned bandanas from being purchased since they were considered "accessories" instead of "essential" items? Call the decision whatever you want, but realize it's half the service at a higher price.

You know, maybe it's the plan for bulk pickup that has the neighborhoods looking so dirty. I know I have neighbors that have had big piles of refuse in their yards for weeks, there's got to be a reason things are the way they are. As it's supposed to work, the truck pulls up and empties your bin. As bins are now over-stuffed with trash, maybe a lot of it falls out before a truck can get there. As it's usually just one person running that operation, you can't expect them to get out and clean up at every house. That's just unreasonable. I know the city will give you an additional can, but at a premium subscription price. That's unreasonable too.

Don't misunderstand me, I have the highest respect for our refuse collectors out there. They seem to be the ones really catching the flack even though they don't deserve it. They're just like you and I, working their lives away to make ends meat and support a family at home. I'd guess they take issue with how messy this whole experiment has been so far too.

Maybe the problem lies, at its core, with the people who think a public service should be a profitable venture... I've had this discussion a time or two about our US Postal Service. People complain about how it tends to lose money and how having a businessman in office could swing that gate around and make it profitable again... but here's the thing... It's not a business. It's a service, and services cost money. Why should water and trash be any different? But I guess we reap what we sow when we elect those types of business minded people into power. Up the price and slash the service. In fact, if our water bill was only billing what it was intended, our minimum bill would be quite a bit cheaper each month. How much pork and failed bond votes are being financed through that bill these days?

Every once in a while I'll get an angry email about how hard I've been on our elected leaders, once from a sitting councilor himself, and for once I'd like to get ahead of them. I don't care. We've elected our leaders for a reason, I have no issues holding them to their empty words. I don't have a political position nor do I lean either way off that fence. It's nothing political, just doing what I can to keep them honest. If you know you can do better, I'd invite you to run for office. You don't need a law degree, obviously, nor do you need to know how government should work... even more obvious at this point. If you know the difference between right and wrong and choose to do what's right, you're probably overqualified.