Re: [gardeners] Saturday in the garden

George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sun, 28 Apr 2002 18:35:36 -0500 

I live in a town of about 25,000 good folk and several not so good. B-) I am amazed at the services
we get for our tax dollars. I only pay about $190.00 total property tax on nearly 2000 square feet,
same house in Texas where we used to live would have cost at least $3,000.00 if not more. Water,
sewer, and once weekly trash pickup is up to $30.16 per month now, was only about $16.00 when we
moved into this house in 1990. We have one of the best police departments in the area, pays more
than the bigger towns. Our fire department is good enough to get us a 2 rating on fire insurance,
which is only one number from the best there is.

We do have a state income tax of, I think, 3 or 4%, and our sales tax here is about 8.75%. Main
roads are not that good but inside the city they're okay. Schools are so-so as the teachers are not
well paid so the ones who can move to Texas for a 10K raise the first year. Don't blame them at all
though.

All in all it's a pretty good place to live.

George

pennyx1@juno.com wrote:
> 
> George, that chipping service "at least once a week" is miraculous!  We
> have
> no such service. OTOH, there is a huge pile of chips way back in what
> used to
> be our 'dump' -- I must ask them if it is available to the public....
> 
> Until about 3 or 4 years ago, we had the primary composting area in the
> entire county. Only leaves could be used, and the trucks would vacuum
> them
> up at the curb about twice a fall. Gardeners always left the piles on the
> clients' lawns, which naturally killed off the underlying grass every
> single
> year!  (The gardeners are jnever permited to dump anything at all, only
> the
> owners are allowed.)  We would fill 32-gallon pails with our leaves, and
> the men would add them to the vacuum trucks for us. Also, Jim would
> load the trunk with 3 pails at a time, and bring them up to the dump,
> when
> we had too much.  But then the homeowners whose property touched on
> the leaf mold compost sued the village to get it moved away -- they hated
> the smell, and claimed there were rats. Since there was absolutely
> NOTHING in that huge gathering of leaves except leaves, I question that..
> 
> So we have no available mulch whatsoever anymore.
> 
> Ten years ago they stopped gathering the non-vegetative trash at the
> primary dump.  That used to be my son's paradise -- all those half
> bicycles
> that he found....!  We can only bring brush, leaves and sod up there now.
> Yeah, and when it rains, it gets v-e-r-y muddy, and our car bogs down
> completely ....  but the guys rush to help us, and no one ever gets mad.
> Must be the white hair.
> ..................
> I do have a vacuum sealer on the premises, but have never tried to
> use it. I know that you swear by it.   I do freeze home-made cookies
> and such on a cookie sheet, just as you do. It even works for ice
> cream scoops, when you want a variety of flavors to serve to
> company, and wish to get it all prepared ahead of time. And it works
> for Chinese Chicken Wings, so they don't stick together. Only way
> to go...
> 
> Penny, NY
> 
> .
> 
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