13 SEP 06: DOWN IN THE DUMPSTERS

One of the topics at Tuesday's Columbus Council meeting was dumpsters. That upset business owner Frank Comer, who said the Council should be discussing prostitution instead. But if you're going to clean up Columbus, doesn't the trash have to go somewhere?

Columbus Council decided to review city rules on dumpsters. Under rules adopted last year, they're supposed to be surrounded by walls on three sides, with a gate on the fourth side - you know, a bit like the city limits....

The goal of the city rules is to make dumpsters outside businesses less of an eyesore. Besides, they reinforce a great Columbus tradition -- of keeping trashy little secrets hidden and out of public view.

The city dumpster rules are expected to be followed in all new developments. But some Columbus Councilors believe it's time to crack down on unsightly dumpsters in established businesses -- or as some might call them, the "has-bins."

Frank Comer, who owns Chapman's party shop on Wynnton Road, was one of the major critics of the dumpster rules at Tuesday's Columbus Council meeting. In a way, this seems strange - because Chapman's sells all sorts of colorful paper and balloons, which could make waste bins look bright and attractive.

The owners of businesses such as Chapman's argue it costs too much money and time to put walls around their dumpsters. Of course, they missed a great opportunity to save money a few weeks ago. There were free bricks available, after a storm damaged the wall at Golden Park.

The business owners also claim that even if walls are built around dumpsters, some areas still will look messy and trashy. This is where employers should use some common sense - and have the trash taken out by aspiring basketball players.

Councilor Evelyn Turner Pugh told WRBL all sides of Columbus should have uniform dumpster rules so they look nice. In fact, a nightclub one block from my home has a wide-open dumpster now. Perhaps with three soundproofed walls around it, the 3:00 a.m. pickup times wouldn't be so noisy [4 Aug].

(At least most of the dumpsters in Columbus are painted green, so they can blend in with landscaping. Imagine how many beggars would find them and look for dinner if they were bright yellow.)

The Columbus Council will examine the dumpster issue in-depth at a work session in two weeks. In the meantime, businesses should be thankful they're not in a college town like Athens - where students probably would demand a second bin in the back, to keep recycled white paper.

Columbus isn't the only place where trash is a touchy topic. Some Marion County residents said Tuesday night they may go to court, to stop new rules requiring them to pay for curbside garbage service. The county actually is buying residents giant trash cans - so how many citizens are lining those cans with campaign posters?

Marion County will switch in October from free trash disposal at a county dump, to curbside collection costing $15 a month. It's no wonder some residents are upset about this -- especially the men. They can't use "I'm taking out the garbage" as an excuse anymore, to make side trips to bars.

I served as a "housesitter" several years ago for a suburban Atlanta family, which went on a cross-country vacation. One of my tasks involved taking trash to the town dump - but I had to drive the family's spare car to do it, because it had a city sticker making me legal. How embarrassing it would have been, to be caught holding the bag....

E-MAIL UPDATE: Now to Tuesday's Ledger-Enquirer, which one of our readers may feel like throwing in a dumpster....

Well, after reading Ms. Sledge's newest article "Heroes come in all colors" I now feel that being racist must be hereditary in her family at least. I vowed to myself that I would quit reading her article since all it does is give her a voice for her thoughts regarding her recist views but I slipped up today. There are more important things to reflect on when remembering 9/11 and the color of someones skin rates zero in most peoples books. Even when all of 9/11 was going on everyone near that was gray from the events.

Now, now! Kaffie Sledge could have gone even farther -- but she stopped short of declaring Kenneth Walker a hero.

I'd think the e-mailer at least would agree with the headline of Tuesday's Kaffie Sledge column: "Heroes come in all colors." You'll notice in the last few weeks, many Columbus residents have decided heroes can wear light blue baseball uniforms....

Kaffie Sledge talked to her aunt for Tuesday's column. Alma Brown is quoted as saying: "Black people are sick of hearing the same stories about 9/11." In fact, a pro football game Sunday night almost had more viewers than the two "9/11" movies on other networks combined -- so this may not be a racial thing.

If you think back a few years, the September 11 attacks exposed some racial issues - not in Columbus, but the Northeast. Remember the picture of the three firefighters raising a flag amid the rubble in New York? That was all the photographer's fault, you know -- for not finding a diverse group of stand-ins on the spur of the moment.

(And what about the stories some groups spread, claiming no Jews or members of other ethnic communities died in the September 11 attacks? The list of victims read every year should teach us better than that. Or maybe we should borrow a baseball statistician for a day - to break down the list not only by skin color, but how many people lived in New Jersey.)

Can we accept the fact that some journalists act as watchdogs for certain groups and causes? Kaffie Sledge has her main issues, just as Lou Dobbs and Bill O'Reilly have theirs. The difference is simply that Tavis Smiley and "Air America" radio don't seem to have discovered Sledge yet.

And if you don't like one journalist's point of view, there's a very simple answer - stay away from him or her. As some people like to say: if you ignore something long enough, it will disappear and never.... oh wait. The September 11 attack disproved that, didn't it?

Now for other things which appeared before our very eyes on Tuesday:

+ A fraternity alumni house caught fire on Second Avenue in the Historic District. Firefighters blamed it on vagrants, who were spending the night in crawl space under the building. I didn't realize all the bed and breakfasts were taken, for that Georgia Conference on Tourism....

+ Sheriff Tommy Boswell went before the Russell County Commission, with his request for a department-wide 20 percent raise. Commissioner Peggy Martin admitted to WRBL she'll have to do some "soul-searching" about it. Not because of the Sheriff, of course - because of how State Senate opponent Ted Little might twist her vote in the campaign.

+ A.L. Dowdell won a runoff for a seat on the Auburn City Council, even though opponent Verlinda White claimed Dowdell really lives in Columbus. Hey, that reminds me - has anyone seen State Senator Ed Harbison since he won the Georgia Primary?

+ Instant Message to the Opelika Middle School student who called in bomb threats on September 11, whomever you are: If you don't like the way the renovations look, your parents should have complained to the school board a couple of years ago.

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