Willie Reynolds Does Some Trash Talkin'

Bethlehem Mayoral Candidate J. William Reynolds and Bob Donchez both appear to be on the same page with respect to a single trash hauler. They're both opposed, which is also the stance they have taken with Mayor John Callahan's most recent proposal.

In my view, they're both wrong.  But they're the ones running.

Since this campaign began, I have been walking through neighborhoods in every corner of our city. Every day I hear from residents about the issues in Bethlehem that concern them the most. One of the most important of these has been City Hall’s recent discussions about our trash removal system.

As part of my Winning Our Neighborhoods initiative, I promised to be a Mayor that listens and leads on the issues that matter most to our citizens. For this reason, I know that it is critical to address this issue head on and provide residents with a clear understanding of my position.

I am committed to the private hauler system that provides Bethlehem with an effective service that many people have known their whole lives. As Mayor, I will work with the private haulers to ensure that we can continue to provide residents with a high quality service.

While knocking on doors over the past couple of months, some residents have raised concerns about certain aspects of our trash removal system in the city of Bethlehem. I believe there are some common sense steps we can take to address some of these neighborhood concerns that will improve upon the current system of trash pick-up.

By exploring a zoned hauling system, by which private haulers continue to stay in business and serve their customers, we can find ways to improve the system.

By breaking the city down in to zones in which neighborhoods would have a specific day for garbage pick-up, it will be easier to keep our neighborhoods clean and identify residents who are non-compliant.

Additionally, we must work with each neighborhood to address their specific realities. We know that there are unique needs in different corners of the city, and the neighborhood committees of my Winning our Neighborhood initiative will provide the perfect platform for finding workable solutions for each.

We also must increase efforts to enforce our municipal waste ordinances. We must make further headway into cleaning up our streets that currently have problems with trash violations. In cities across the country (including Allentown), alternative methods of enforcing trash cleanup are utilized with much success. Many of these programs provide a combination of education and enforcement with field officers who issue warnings, tickets and citations for non-compliance. Programs such as these are worthy of additional review and consideration to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of such a program for our City.

By combining the continuation of private hauling with these additional improvements that make sense for Bethlehem, we can achieve the best possible outcomes for residents of the City of Bethlehem.