Using charts and graphs, Durango School District 9-R Superintendent Daniel Snowberger explained how the state’s complicated school funding formula is failing Durango’s youths and the rationale for voting for a tax increase this November.
Emil Wanatka, president of the board of the Durango Fire Protection District, took up the perplexing issue of providing a stable source of funding for fire and emergency services in a consolidated fire district.
After describing the magnitude and complexity of these issues, neither Snowberger nor Wanatka got immediate follow-up questions from the Eggs & Issues breakfast forum organized by the Durango Chamber of Commerce at the DoubleTree Hotel on Wednesday.
So what issue did raise the most attention?
Plastic bags. As in, what’s the point of a 10-cent fee on disposable plastic and paper bags at city supermarkets?
Durango City Councilor Keith Brant, the only nay on the 4-1 council vote to approve the bag-fee ordinance that voters will either affirm or overturn Nov. 5, said he did not understand what problem the fee was trying to solve, especially because plastic bags represent less than 1 percent of the city’s waste stream.
This question got repeated during audience question time.
To add justification to the 10-cent fee, councilors Sweetie Marbury and Christina Rinderle noted that plastic bags were getting flushed down the toilet and messing up the city’s sewer system.
Another fee skeptic, Mike Smedley, a columnist for The Durango Herald, then questioned why the city requires residents to put its trash in plastic bags for curb-side pickup.
In a rhetorical response, City Manager Ron LeBlanc asked Smedley why the newspaper is placed in a plastic bag. Smedley answered jokingly so he can flush it down the toilet.
But Rinderle also questioned the logic of those who think the bag fee is petty in comparison to other issues.
“I hear this a lot at events. ‘If your defense is preventing nonbiodegradable waste from filling our landfill, then I don’t understand,’” she said. “Just because we have bigger fish to fry doesn’t mean we shouldn’t eat the fish.”
The point of the fee is also to raise awareness, she said.
“Trash comes at a cost,” Rinderle said. “We all have to do our part.”
jhaug@durangoherald.com
