Letter to the Editor: Keeping it local

I just learned that the city council is considering dropping Dodd’s Trash Hauling and replacing their services with some other non-local company.

Are they out of their minds? Has Dodd’s not provided excellent customer service for 58 years? The answer is YES! Are Newton residents complaining about Dodd’s? The answer is NO!

I can’t believe the city would even consider dropping Dodd’s, for what? To save a few dollars. Is that all that matters now? Does excellent service and a decades-long proven commitment to the community mean nothing at all now? I’ll quote the CEO’s wife in the movie National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, upon learning her husband has cut out Christmas bonuses for employees that year, “What a lousy way to save a buck!”

Yeah, what a lousy way to treat a long-time partner of Newton and Jasper County. Randy Ervin gave the best argument against this ridiculous proposal when he pointed out that not only is Dodd’s a local company, hiring local residents, but they actually care about and participate in this community.

Dodd’s has done nothing to deserve termination. I would hope you all would listen to Randy Ervin and emphatically reject this idea of replacing them and show some community pride and keep them as our waste and recycling provider.

John Moore

Newton