A local business owner expressed her own dismay to the City Council of Logan this month about the towns' dropping of garbage services to customers at the Fountain Place Plaza.

Diana Barnett, owner of the Fountain Place Cinema 8 and co-owner of Gatti's restaurant said she was upset to find out that after she had spent $ $3,000 dollars on three dumpsters that the city's garbage truck utilizes.

Barnett said that when the city dropped garbage service at the mall, "It caused us to have to contact Waste Management" to have garbage picked up.

"I would like to know who made this decision and whether or not the council voted on it," Barnett said.

City Attorney Kendal Partlow admitted the decision had been made by the mayor and that even though the council approved of the measure it had not been voted on at any public meeting. Partlow said the city charter did not require the city to provide commercial garbage pick up, only residential.

Mayor Serafino Nolletti said the city only had seven customers at the mall and it was just not financially feasible to continue to provide service there and his decision to halt pick up was a cost cutting measure.

Barnett said she originally went with the city's service because she wanted the town to benefit from paying for garbage pick up, not an outside business and asked about getting more customers at the mall.

Mayor Nolletti said the town just didn't have enough equipment to continue service there.

Barnett then asked what the Business and Occupation taxes were utilized for and asked about a $5 monthly bill for city services she felt she was not receiving as waste pick up was discontinued.

Mayor Nolletti, Police Chief E.K. Harper and City Accountant Jeff Valet noted that the city does not get 100 percent of the B&O taxes from the mall and that the fee was for police and fire protection and other services.

Valet said most other municipalities also try to recoup expenses by initiating various municipal fees.

"Well, I am still stuck with three dumpsters I bought when I signed up for city services," Barnett said, explaining that had she known the services would have been discontinued she would not be out of pocket for an expense that was well over a thousand dollars on one of the dumpsters. She also pointed out that people have been dumping household items in one of the dumpsters.

Barnett said the property owners at the mall would be forming a local business owners association and would send a member to the monthly council meetings and asked for copies of the minutes to meetings as well as notification of meetings.

"We just feel that we are up there and you guys are down here and there is not enough communication," Barnett said. "We want things to be fair we don't want to feel we are in competition with businesses downtown. We are a part of this city too and we feel all of us need to work together."

Barnett said any business owners interested in purchasing the dumpsters utilized by Logan's street department should contact her.