At the last City Council meeting, much was made of the fact that a petition with 1,000 signatures had been presented proposing a ban or a fee on the bags. That is 1,000 out of 16,887 residents in the city of Durango.

What is the council going to do about the other 34,447 residents who reside in La Plata County who will be affected but have no say in this decision? Why is the council unwilling to work with the county commissioners to get this matter on the ballot and let everyone in the county have a say?

Why are paper bags included in this argument, and why do the stores break down the boxes and not allow consumers to reuse them?

Recently, a lady in an SUV drove into a parking space in front of me when I was getting ready to leave City Market. She opened the back door and got her reusable bags out of the backseat, where there were also two large dogs.

The bags appeared to be flattened from the dogs walking and sitting on them.

Those bags probably went onto the bagging area when she checked out. I doubt the bagging area was sanitized after she left with her groceries. What bacteria or viruses might have been carried on those bags?

The council is proposing to act on a 10-cent fee per bag. An outright ban of only plastic bags might be preferable rather than assessing a fee. Leave the paper bags alone – they decompose!

Eventually, the city will have to hire staff to handle the fees, and then government grows again. Just ban the plastic bags, and get over it. The council has better things to do, such as improving parking downtown.

The City Council should put a ban, or the 10-cent fee (a tax, really), to a vote of all county voters, and then we can all live with the results.

The council should do it right or not at all.

Normalyn G. Hurford

Durango