Your article concerning the fact that 500 residents of Mercer Island do not currently subscribe to garbage service doesn’t strike me as such an odd situation. Certainly, we can all commiserate with the park workers who have to spend time emptying trash containers, but the fact that 500 households do not subscribe to the service does not immediately make them all scofflaws.

We all know that there are homes on the Island that are occupied for only a month or two with people using them for summer homes. Certainly, those people would want to avoid paying a pricey fee each month for a service that they are not using.

More to the point, however — it is helpful to consider two facts: one is that over 500 people on the Island live below the poverty line. That doesn’t mean that all poor people living on the Island are sneaking into parks in the middle of the night to dispose of their Huggies, but it is a reminder that poverty does exist here on Poverty Rock.

It’s also a reminder that the City Council and other local governments have raised utility fees constantly over the last 20 years and that the combination of water, sewer, garbage and assorted fees can now add up to $140 per month. If your income was $600 per month, would you spend money on garbage?

Geoffrey Spelman

Editor’s note:

The City says an average of just 16 residents call the city per month to report changes for utility billing. Trash pick-up for a 20-gallon can is $10.45 a month.