To the editor:

Business owners, beware!

All business owners, large or small, should be aware that your local government can and will put you out of business if they choose to do so, without compensation.

After running a successful curbside recycling business for 13 years, it was evident that I would not be able to continue once the city started operating its own program.

In recent years, I attended several meetings, many times voicing my concern that small companies would be put out of business. The commission only suggested that we should change our business plan. I wrote one letter to the commission even mentioning that the city, if they chose to, could step into the auto repair business or lawn and yard maintenance business since they have their own city departments for this. It is interesting that some businesses get 10-year tax abatements or free downtown parking spots while other companies are ignored and just pushed aside and swept under the rug. Everything I’ve heard from the federal and state levels of government is to support small business.

When I recently saw the picture of Commissioner Bob Schumm jumping out of the new recycling container, I thought maybe he had found money in the container to pay the four or five small curbside recycling businesses that are becoming extinct due to the city’s practices.

To my customers of many years, thanks once again. To the city of Lawrence: Recycling truck for sale!