Waste Not....Want Not

Waste not want not! An interesting concept. If you use a commodity or resource carefully and without extravagance, you will never be in need. Well, the City of Lumberton has had its collection plate out begging for donations to the building fund ever since Ben Winston took office (everyone that attends black churches knows that the building fund has been collected all their life but they haven’t purchased a door knob for the church). Under his leadership we have no accountability, no one accept responsibility and no forward mobility. Just last Tuesday, I saw one man reading the meters for Mississippi Power and on the same day, I saw a few people reading water meters for the City of Lumberton. Well, on Friday, I received the bill from Mississippi Power but I’m guessing the water bills from the City of Lumberton will be mailed out October 30, 2015 at 1:57 pm. Keep in mind that one person read meters for Mississippi Power with an electronic wand to enter the data, a truck and some comfortable shoes. Also keep in mind that the clerk at Mississippi Power work four hours a day in Purvis, has one hour lunch and then comes to Lumberton to work another four hours. Now the City of Lumberton has several people reading the water meters. There’s a guy walking and reading each meter while a couple of people ride along side of him in the truck and record the data as it’s called out. Mississippi Power has one clerk and the City of Lumberton has 3 or should that be 2 and 3/4,’s clerks since Melissa is working a mere 32 hours a week but she’s doing everything she can to get to 40 hours a week.

Where is the savings? The guys in the field are getting less money than those working in the office but they’re doing the brunt of the work. So why can’t Lumberton use an electronic wand and one person to read the water meters since they’re not getting mailed any sooner? Well, I’m glad you asked that question. The guy that had the clerk position before they hired Keenon was actually supposed to start reading the meters and processing the water bills; that was one reason why the additional clerk position was created. As a matter of fact, the City of Lumberton paid thousands of dollars for the electronic wand but now it’s sitting at city hall collecting dust because no one knows how to operate it. Yay Lumberton! (Sarcasm fully intended).

Another bad move for the City of Lumberton. Mayor Winston and Alderman Jay McGraw insisted that privatizing garbage collection for Lumberton would save the city money. They never provided a price analysis and how they determined this move would save the City of Lumberton money but here’s a breakdown. One of the main reasons why Mayor Winston didn’t want to continue garbage collection through the Public Works Department was his unwillingness to purchase a new garbage truck. At the time, the City of Hattiesburg was converting to new automated garbage trucks and was getting rid of the fleet of trucks they purchased the previous year. As a matter of fact, some smaller cities were given a one year old garbage truck for free and others purchased some of the trucks for as little as $72,000 each but Mayor Ben Winston did not want to take that route. To this day, we do not know if the City of Lumberton is saving money with WastePro collecting garbage one day a week. However, we do know that the City of Lumberton is paying $96,000 a year for once a week garbage collection. Winston claims to be a wise businessman but I think it would have been wise to use that $96,000 to pay for a new truck and keep people in Lumberton employed. Instead, we’re paying $96,000 to a company based in another city and funding their employees while claiming the City of Lumberton cannot afford to collect its own garbage. At $96,000 it seems like we can’t afford to keep giving away money that could be used to grow Lumberton’s economy.