This week's issue of the Sherwood Voice has an excellent story about the pilot curb side recycling program that Mayor Hillman announced in the March city council meeting. The program is in Gap Creek and the residents are responding in resounding numbers. According to the news report, a whopping 60% of residents partcipated the first week! WOW this a huge success. To learn more about the pilot program, please visit the following link:
http://www.sherwoodvoice.com/articles/2008/05/02/sherwood_voice/local_news/nws03.txt
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9 comments:
How long will the pilot program be in effect?
I believe that I recall that Mayor Hillman stated back in March that the pilot program will be in effect for one month. To determine if the participation levels will be high enough to see if it can go city-wide.
Nice start, just wish the pilot were underway in a neighborhood that had demographics that reflect the city as a whole better.
Gap Creek is higher income and better educated than the city as whole. Statistically worthless to draw conclusions as to how the program would work on a city-wide basis.
Voluntary participation though is inefficient. Requires too much worker time and fuel burned when people are allowed to opt out without financial penalty (ie higher fees for failing to recycle).
Mark, not trying to step on your toes or anything... But, Sherwood residents as a whole, have the highest concentration of education and income than any other city in Pulaski County.
And, Sherwood is the only incorporated city within Pulaski County that does not offer curbside recycling.
Although I do tend to agree with you that participation should be mandatory...let's just get to the point where we can even offer it as a city service! The other little tidbit...is that the Mayor has promised that if this goes city-wide, that it won't raise are already high garbage fee...
Maumelle has 96.4% compared to Sherwood that has 90.5% with High School degree. Maumelle has 45.7%compared to Sherwood that has 24.8%with Bachelor's Degree. I don't believe Sherwood has the highest education and income in Pulaski County. Let's be factual and not practice salesmanship for persuasion.
Jack - not sure where you got your numbers as they do not correlate to 2000 Census Data. But, that's not really my argument. I stand corrected.
At one point in the recent past we did have the highest per capita in education and income in Pulaski County...
My point is, I do believe that city-wide numbers for participation in curbside recycling will be higher than average and higher than surrounding cities.
If you need the link to the fact finder at census.gov, let me know. My point is exactly what you said "At one point in the recent past we did have the highest per capita in education and income in Pulaski County". There are some people still thinking this is the way Sherwood is when it really is what it used to be. For example, how many times do you hear about "old Sherwood" at the Senior Citizens pot-luck as if that area is the only core to the city. I do agree with you that the participation will be higher than average and higher than surrounding cities.
Jack is correct based on 2000 census.
Less than one in four in Sherwood over age 25 have a bachelor's degree or better compared to almost 1 in 2 in Maumelle. Maumelle has nearly double the percentage of population with a graduate or professional degree.
http://censtats.census.gov/data/AR/1600544600.pdf
http://censtats.census.gov/data/AR/1600563800.pdf
I suspect that the bachelor's degree attainment in Gap Creek is far higher than the slightly less than 1 in 4 in Sherwood as a whole.
I'm all for recycling whether it be mandatory or voluntary but I don't think that a pilot focused on a neighborhood that does not reflect the demographics of the city provides especially useful data for drawing any conclusions about how well the program would be adopted on a city-wide basis.
The garbage fee needs to be replaced with a city millage. Nearly half of all housing units in Sherwood are owner-occupied with a mortgage, making them high probability residences to itemize their taxes.
The IRS has found that once income reaches $50,000 at least half of taxpayers itemize deductions. The median family income in Sherwood in 2000 was $51,510. A millage that produces the same tax revenue as the garbage fee would result in a lower fee for lower income persons who either own less expensive homes or who are paying the millage in tandem with other tenants in the form of rent, while higher income residents would pay a higher fee on their more expensive homes but would be able to reduce the effective cost of the millage by reducing their state and federal income tax liability.
Hey - I was NEVER for the garbage fee to begin with. That was a decision that was made near Christmas when the old Wal Mart moved, Best Buy moved and Furniture Row moved. Citizens and two Alderman (Stedman and Butler) were very vocal against it, but, it was passed (SURPRISE). Since that time when businesses are coming back there has been NO discussion by the Alderman that were on the city council about doing away with it or reducing it.
At least if we get curbside recycling we'll get more "bang for the buck". Our garbage fee is higher than most surrounding cities that already offer curbside recycling.
I disagree with imposing a millage with the economy the way it is right now. Perhaps at a later time it would be a viable alternative to the excessive fees we pay. If we did eventually go with a millage, maybe we could do away with sales tax, franchise fees and garbage fees.
As far as Income/Education. Mark & Jack you are right. I can't recall how far back the old factoid was true but I think it was around the time that Sherwood had a special census conducted.
We have alot to be proud of in Sherwood and we do have unusually high income and education compared to most cities our size in Arkansas. Coming in 2nd behind Maumelle in Pulaski County is nothing to be ashamed about.
We can all agree on is that it is very good that Mayor Hillman got this off the ground with a pilot study and is trying to bring us additional services without additional costs.
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