Today's Opinions

The 109 Board in Shelby County is doing one thing we heartily applaud: It scheduled five public-input sessions at various locations across the county to gather your thoughts on its plans for a new garbage/recycling center and its idea of charging you to drop your trash there.

The first of those sessions was Tuesday night in Simpsonville, and another will be held tonight at the Shelby County Health Department in Shelbyville. There are also sessions Thursday in Finchville, next Monday in Bagdad and Tuesday in Waddy.

Now that I own acreage, I am renewing my relationship with something I’ve detested since youth: mud, the gooey stuff that just doesn’t vanish in a climate where temperatures might be 19 one day and 69 the next. The ground is muddy, then frozen, then muddy. You don’t have to be Darwin to understand that evolution.

If you own property in Shelby County, you pay 3.5 percent of that property’s taxable value for what you might consider to be garbage service. This is what you receive for that payment: A “convenience center” in Waddy that is maintained and emptied, a recycling center that is staffed and an opportunity to transport your garbage or recyclables to those facilities.

What you don’t get is garbage service.