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Show Oleri B -Sheriff & Sons tells their side df aarbaae stbrv . . w DearEditor, , i.- .v . . i c ' Tn self-defense against the darts : thrown at us and our company, Olen R. Sheriff and Sons Sanitation Co., through the newspaper, I feel a responsibility to tell our friends in , Centerville pur side of the garbage story. (, N '' - ; We have spent years 'giving the - people here the best service we ; could and wanting . to please the people in our town. We Have had ' very little complaint considering the .approximately two-ihousand homes ' , a week serviced. - ' W5 always ,went bick if it was - our mistake and tried to help keep ; the streets clean because it was our , town and We were proud of it? . -.We' hired as many people from 1 Centerville as we could, even now there will be four people from Centerville affected by this change, Up to now we have tried to say nothing about all the articles Written that have been unfair but the last : straw was the article last .week which quoted the mayor as saying, "The present contractor of Center-ville's Center-ville's garbage system came in yearly and asked for fifty cents to ' one dollar a month increase." This wasnottrue! . ' The first year after we were sent ! tto the burn plant we did ask for 47 cents to cover the extra costs as we had to purchase another truck, and "we .were forced to . purchase a . million dollar insurance policy for the city coverage (not ours). This " also .was at our own expense. We were i"efused even one penny in-. in-. crease and were told that if we did not want to sign, someone else : could haul Centerville's garbage, Ten years ago the garbage was hauled at $1.90 per home., In 1989 we, are getting $1.40 more-that does not sound like a dollar a year more to me,,' , . ; .( Yes, we were given a chance to - bid on the hew automated system. In fact about three years ago we were asked to give a proposal for automation which we did. We were told they could not giveTis a-five year contract We- were not interested inter-ested then because it would have taken five to seven years to pay off the equipment and trucks, etc. ,'. We knew the cancellation clause in the contract we held made the contract ur less. There is 'still one yen left i r : ' - 3 b that contract T1.13 r..o us l.c3lu.rit to bid on"$ quarter 9f a million dollars worth of equipment with no more, security than that ' ' - , Not one penny raise was given yearly since we have been required tp go to. the bum plant. The only exception ex-ception was when the change was ' made, from the five bags back jo taking everything. The Ad Hoc Committee' determined we should abandon the five bag contract and then we were given back the nickel plus '. another nickel as we were , again bargained with the price we had asked. We were informed again we had no choice as "that's the way it is!" We must sign again or quit hauling for the city. " We tried to talk to the councilman coun-cilman over the garbage, but he had ' no time for us. Nor was he at all interested in-terested in what we thought Never once did he back us or vote in our behalf to our knowledge. . The hew system, may be very nice. but it is . not cheaper even ; though the hauler is paid less. He : will also pick up much less garbage. You not only lose some service but " you will pay a lot more. It is doubtful doubt-ful if he will go back if he misses you.; ' ; ., " HftThe spring clean-up the city cancelled, landed on us! Even some of the people who called were told to "bundle it and put it out for the garbage. They will take it" We did, we have taken from one to two trucks more a day over normal. , We are still in business -"even though the newspaper articles have sounded dismal and we are happy to tell the other cities we haul for, that what the newspaper prints is not always factual. Because we .have not changed our , policy-let our reputation prove itself. -f. In 1987 we received an Exj emplary Service Award from Centerville. This was brought about , by the city sending out a questionnaire question-naire to every home in the city tc get the feeling of the people concerning con-cerning the city services. (It ii notable that no such letter has beer ; sent to you for your feelings on this change, When , something is no broken-why fix it?) - ' 1 From the" time we received thai award there has been a pressJK feeling, we were turned away ever) ye?j, with no as the answer, a "t! t is just the way it is." So this ; wes really no surprise to us, a dis K' ' ':r.t yes, for there wa; t" n&;-g fair with the contract-kga r yes, but not fair. , . '. -, " -: r , Thanks to some good people and I : friends, we are still going on haul- - ing garbage. j We thank Councilman Bruce 1 Erickson for being a good listener and sounding board as he is a good public servant who has spent a lot : of hours trying to help Centerville. s . It has been our blessing to be of service to you. Olen and Marilyn Sheriff |