To the Editor:

RE: Southwest Solid Waste Authority

It is difficult to choose where to begin with SWSWA and its relationship with Grant County. Let's begin with what we currently are faced-with: A quasi-county agency which has been mismanaged by incompetents for decades. The financial, facilities and operational issues that are currently in dire need of review/restructuring developed neither overnight nor in a vacuum.

Apparently, no one has provided any oversight for an agency that has unsafe facilities, underpaid employees (some of whom are working in appalling conditions) and aged/faulty equipment - not to reiterate the aforementioned incompetent leadership.

Transport trucks are constantly breaking-down and unavailable. Bins going unemptied for weeks. Arbitrary ridiculous unpublished "Edicts" from whomever is nominally managing the agency at any given time. When calling SWSWA, no one answers, or a "Secretary" answers the phone and provides no insight into any query.

That being said, we are being told monthly fees may increase to as much as $30/mo. That's more than (the Town of) Silver City charges for weekly curbside pickup.

What exactly will county residents get for this potentially outrageous fee increase? Absolutely nothing, except maybe several automated trash collection-compactors (which cost money as they are leased from a private sector company).

We did not create this mess at SWSWA, neither did the current Commission or County Manager, I recognize that. However, the fact remains that we are being subjected to a potential huge fee increase that will net NO increase or enhancement in services that really benefit the majority of those paying these fees.

When will Commissioners realize SWSWA needs competent management and a constantly-evolving multi-year capital improvement plan to restructure the agency, its facilities and operations?

The County has a Capital Planning Committee and it has been effective for Grant County's projected needs for many years, within practical limitations.

SWSWA will also need effective oversight so that we are not again facing a similar set of problems in a few years.

Grant County residents who are subject to these fees and the potential massive increase in them need to express their opinions to Commissioners and the media - soon. These decisions being made by the County Commission are upcoming. Please, let's not maintain a status-quo at SWSWA of being a "First-rate, third-rate" service provider - especially when the joke is at our expense.

M.J. Burns
Gila, NM