PICK UP TRASH
An extreme amount of trash has accumulated along the roadways of our city. While we haven't (yet) had heavy snowfall this winter, some commercial areas have virtual drifts of plastic and paper accumulating at the fence lines. I don't know if this blizzard of debris was let loose accidentally or carelessly. I do know that no one seems to be cleaning it up.
I plan to do my part and 'adopt' a section of Route 4 near where I live. I hope that others will do the same and that businesses will take responsibility for the land in their area.
Linda Johnson
Springfield
MAKE LESS TRASH
In the editor's note from the Feb. 8 edition, Fletcher Farrar mentions that there is an unenforced requirement for each residence in Springfield to have trash service. While I can understand the desire to inhibit illegal dumping of garbage, this ordinance apparently does not consider that there are residents who do not require weekly or even monthly garbage collection. I fill a kitchen-size waste receptacle about every three months. Most of my "trash" goes into recycling or composting. I would not fill a curbside receptacle in a year.
I should not be required to pay for weekly or monthly garbage pick-up simply because I live in Springfield. Perhaps Springfield should have a Composting, Recycling and Waste Task Force, with community-wide composting and recycling being primary and waste being only that which does not fit the first two categories.
Teri Kidd
Springfield
SOME OPT OUT
The article doesn't address the reason why the people are camping out ("Doing more for the homeless," Feb.1). The people who are using wooded areas generally do not want to follow rules at a shelter or transitional housing. I don't doubt outreach is happening, but the residents on the northwest side are getting fed up. We wouldn't mind so much if the homeless here were acting civilized and respecting the people that live here, but unfortunately, they're not. The northwest side has been reverse-gentrified and the mayor and city council don't care.
Lisa McBrien
MORE OUTREACH NEEDED
Shannon Allen and Officer Michael Newman (of the Springfield Police Department) have done a lot for Springfield's community. Every time I see them, they're hard at work. If we had another two or four like them, it would make a huge difference!
Caroline Kionka
Springfield
MORE HELP FOR IMMIGRANTS
The cover story of your Feb. 1 issue about homelessness pointed out the whole host of social problems convening around the central issue of people without a secure place to live. The story was told with compassion and truth.
In those same pages were an article and opinion piece on another class of displaced persons – immigrants. Many of their problems are the same as for the domestic homeless – lacking basic needs, having no shelter, few if any job prospects and generally regarded as undesirable. Yet in the case of immigrants, there seems to be more exasperation and infighting, rather than a spirit of collaboration, which is too bad.
Whereas the homeless situation here is still a long way from being solved, at least there is a guiding star of "functional zero" homelessness; there needs to be a guiding star for the immigrant population as well. Jeffrey Hobbs
Springfield
MAGA AND DINO
Dave Blanchette's sitdown with Nikki Budzinski confirms my belief that there are two political parties in the United States today, the MAGA party and the DINO party ("Budzinski, the bipartisan Democrat," Feb. 1)
Martin B. King
NOT COMPETENT
I know when my parents obviously were unable, I had to take away their car keys. Now I see Jill Biden, who clearly knows the truth, wants Joe to keep the nuclear football. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Jerald Jacobs
Springfield
