I’m disappointed that the City of Kirkland is playing politics with their cuts to services instead of honestly looking for ways to save money. Removing garbage cans is not going to save money. The parks have to be mowed anyway so it costs nothing to check the can while you are there. In the winter, it would probably take two-three hours twice a week to check the cans in the outlying parks. Checking cans is not the problem; the problem is paying full timers $20-30 an hour to do garbage in the winter, when they pay part timers probably $8-9 an hour in the summer.

The city should look at outsourcing the Parks maintenance staff. What do they do in the winter? They could certainly outsource mowing, why hire people to work year round at a job that only needs to be done six months a year? Garbage and baseball are mostly May-July, there is irrigation work, aerating, fertilizing, and planting, in the spring. What do they do in the winter?

Don McDaniel, Kirkland