In response to a letter in the Post on Nov. 30, “New collection plan will fail”:

The Salisbury public services department works hard to develop ways to serve residents more efficiently. The upcoming garbage route change and enforcement of collection guidelines are just two of the ways we think will save money, manpower and ensure residents are treated fairly as our community grows.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2018, routes will be grouped daily by nearby neighborhoods -saving on mileage for our garbage trucks, creating a more efficient collection days for our workers and causing less wear and tear on equipment.

Dumping trash on other people’s property has always been illegal. Our public services staff will continue to work with Code Enforcement to ensure that illegal dumping is handled as quickly as possible.

Mr. Bowyer is correct. Some services provided by local governments years ago were included in the property taxes paid. Unfortunately, given increases in operational costs to cities and reductions in city budgets nationwide, some fees have been passed along to residents. Salisbury’s mission is always to operate efficiently, conscientiously and responsibly with tax dollars.

Aside from increasing efficiency, this route change and collection enforcement will also ensure that all Salisbury residents are paying their fair share for trash collection. There is no additional charge for basic trash removal and water run-off. There is no fee for the collection of tree limbs and debris.

There will continue to be two periods per year in which bulky items can be collected at no charge — Spring and Fall Spruce Up.

Garbage is collected once per week, per household in the city-provided garbage rollouts. But there is an additional charge for extra garbage cans, and an additional $11 per month for the extra trash collection. We feel that is a fair rate to collect trash over and above what the city-issued rollout will hold. We recognize that some have purchased similar, non-city-issued rollouts and have not paid the $11 fee for the additional trash collection. This is our effort to make the collection and related charges fair to all.

— Linda McElroy

City of Salisbury