A huge rant to the Enumclaw City Council & Administrator Chris Searcy for the manner in which garbage collections fees are being raised. Your basic formula means those of us using a 20 or 32 gallon container will be subsidizing the people creating the most waste.

I am a senior citizen on a fixed income. I went from a 32 gallon cart to a 20 gallon cart last year because I can not afford to pay for 32 gallons of trash, when in fact I have exactly one 11 gallon bag of trash a week, or less. I am also ineligible for the city’s low-income utility discount program.

Where is the logic or fairness in this formula? You are basically penalizing many of us on low, fixed incomes. Commercial customers and large families can better afford a larger per gallon rate than single and retired people. As it is right now, I have $118 per month for food — that is per month, not per week. By raising my rates for trash and yard waste by $8 a month, you are effectively reducing my food budget to $110 per month.

I challenge each and every council member to try to live on this amount of food per month. I encourage all Enumclaw residents being punished in this manner to contact our council members directly about this inequity. Not one of them will ever get another vote from me. And, I am cancelling my yard waste service to offset this increase. From now on, my yard waste will be going in my 20 gallon container to make up the difference between my 11 gallons of trash and the 20 gallon container that I will be overcharged for.

Dennie Anderson

Enumclaw