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Public Services |
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Public Services |
Safe drinking water, regular trash collection, recreation opportunities, and police protection are among the many services provided by local governments. You and your family may use some of these services--water, for example--many times every day. Other services--trash collection or recreation--you may use only once or twice a week. Still other services--criminal investigations, for instance--you may use only rarely, but they are available whenever you need them. Table 4.1 lists the major services that North Carolina city and county governments have authority to provide under state law. No one government provides all of the services on this list. As we saw in the last chapter, counties must provide certain mandated services. Except for the mandated services, municipalities and counties choose which services they will provide, depending on the needs and interests of their citizens. When a government provides a service, government officials use public money to pay for the service. They decide what kind of service will be produced, and they take responsibility for assuring that the service will meet the standards they set for it. Not all public services are produced by government. Some governments pay nonprofit organizations to carry out public services on behalf of the people.
In this chapter you will go "behind the scenes" to see how a few public services are produced. You will look at water and sewer services, trash (solid waste) collection and disposal, recreation, and policing. These services are just examples of the many services local governments provide. Counties, cities, and towns also operate public libraries, provide fire protection, support hospitals, maintain animal shelters, and conduct many other public services. Often local governments produce these services themselves. For example, they set up departments to operate water supply facilities, to collect trash, or to police the community. Sometimes, however, local governments hire a private business, a non-profit organization, or another government to produce a service. Government hiring of a business to produce a public service is called privatization. The government buys the service from the business rather than hiring government employees to produce the service. Regardless of who produces public services, however, government pays for them. Governments raise most of the money to pay for services through taxes. For some services, the local government charges users of the service to help cover the cost of providing the service. For example, most governments charge their customers for the water they use. Many public services are directly helpful to customers—the people who use them. For example, you drink the water, get rid of your trash, swim in the pool, or have a crime investigated. These are called "user-focused" services.
But many of these services also benefit the community at large. Having a safe, abundant water supply protects everyone in the community from diseases spread by contaminated water and also supports firefighting. Safe, efficient waste collection and disposal helps keep the community healthy and attractive. Public recreation also supports a healthier, happier community. Criminal investigation helps protect the entire community from crime. Thus, public services benefit you both as an individual user and as a member of the community. WATER SUPPLYPublic water systems have four parts: source, treatment, distribution, and wastewater treatment. Water is pumped from the source into a treatment plant. The water is treated to make it safe to drink. Then the water is pumped into storage tanks, from which it is distributed through pipes to the people who will use it. Finally, wastewater is treated. Controlling water pollution is important to assure a safe supply of drinking water. Wastewater can be a major source of water pollution. Sewage collection and treatment systems are essential to safe water supply systems. Water Supply SourcesWells are one important source of water in North Carolina. Wells tap into underground water. They allow water to be pumped out of the layers of sand, gravel, or porous rock, where it is trapped. In places where there are large pockets of underground water, wells can provide a steady source of water for public water systems. Rain and other water on the surface of the earth seeps down to replace the ground water that is pumped out. In rural areas where there is no public water system, each house may have its own well. Towns also use wells to supply public water systems where ground water is abundant. Rivers and reservoirs are other important water sources for public water systems. North Carolina has many rivers, and frequent rainfall ensures that they flow all year long. Some cities located near a river simply pump their water from the river. Where there is no convenient river with enough water, reservoirs must be built to catch and hold rainwater until it is needed. Most of North Carolina's larger cities, and many smaller ones, depend on water from reservoirs. Water from rivers and reservoirs is called surface water. All of the land which drains into a reservoir is called the watershed for that reservoir. Local governments may adopt rules to encourage construction of ponds or the use of erosion control fences in the watershed to reduce the silt that enters reservoirs. They may also prohibit dumping wastes into storm sewers or streams. Watershed protection can reduce contamination of rivers and reservoirs, but surface water is still likely to be more contaminated than ground water. Reservoirs are much more expensive water sources than either wells or rivers. Building a reservoir requires buying the land which will be flooded by the new lake and constructing a dam to contain the water. Engineers must first design a dam and map out the area the new lake will cover. Then the agency building the reservoir can begin to buy the land. Many reservoirs are built specifically to supply water. Some dams that provide water are built for other purposes, however. The federal government, working through the Army Corps of Engineers, builds reservoirs for flood control. Some private companies build reservoirs for electric power generation. If a city has to build its own reservoir, the cost of the reservoir is paid by the customers who use water. Thus, cities that must build reservoirs to ensure an adequate supply of water usually have higher water rates than cities that are able to get all the water they need from wells or rivers. The most expensive method of supplying water is using sea water. Along the coast, a few communities take the salt out of sea water through a process called desalinization. Water TreatmentThe kinds of treatment water needs depend upon the impurities in it. Water from wells sometimes has almost no impurities. It has been filtered naturally as it collects below ground. On the other hand, underground water can become contaminated if harmful substances are buried nearby. To help prevent contamination of ground water, the federal government has passed several environmental protection laws. One outlaws the discharge of dangerous chemicals into a stream or into the soil. Another requires landfills to be lined so that water cannot seep out of them and carry materials into the ground water. Still another requires underground storage tanks (such as those for gasoline) to be rustproof so they will not leak.
Surface water picks up such things as the oil and grit from streets and parking lots, the fertilizer and pesticides from fields, trash or waste that is left exposed, and even soil particles. Therefore, surface water generally requires more treatment than well water. The first step in treating surface water is to filter it. At the water treatment plant, filtering and sedimentation remove solid particles from the water. (Sedimentation involves adding chemicals to the water that cause the suspended solids to clump together and sink.) The water must next be treated chemically to kill harmful bacteria. Chlorine compounds are typically added to the water for this purpose. In many places, fluorine compounds are also added to the water to reduce tooth decay. Water plant operators must constantly monitor the water through each stage of treatment to be sure they are adding just the right amount of each of the chemicals they use. Water Distribution
Treated water is pumped into elevated storage tanks so that it can flow through underground pipes to all the places it will be used. Each house, school, office building, store, or factory using water from the public water system is connected to the water distribution lines. Another expense in providing a public water supply is the construction of the water lines. A meter at the point of connection measures how much water flows out of the line and into each customer's property. These meters are read periodically, and the customer is billed for the water that has passed through the meter. Besides distributing water to users, the water lines provide another benefit. Fire hydrants connected to the lines give firefighters ready access to water used in fighting fires. Public water systems need to be designed to deliver enough water for fire fighting, as well as for residential, commercial, and industrial uses. A ready supply of water for fighting fires is an important community benefit of water supply systems. Sewage Collection and TreatmentThe liquid wastes from houses, schools, stores, offices, and factories are potentially dangerous. If they are not treated, these wastes can contaminate water with the chemicals or bacteria they carry. To avoid contaminating drinking water, hazardous chemicals, such as oil and many industrial and cleaning products, should not be poured on the ground or down the drain. In some areas, drains go into septic tanks in which harmful bacteria are killed by natural processes. In these areas each house usually has its own septic tank. However, septic tanks cannot be used in densely populated areas or in areas where the soil will not readily absorb the water that has been treated in the tank. In these areas, wastewater flows into sewers, which deliver it to a sewage treatment plant. At the sewage treatment plant, chemical and biological processes eliminate harmful chemicals and bacteria from the wastewater and separate solids from the liquid wastes. The solid material separated from sewage is called sludge. Properly treated sludge is safe to use for fertilizer and is often recycled in that way. Properly treated water is safe to release into rivers or lakes. It is safe to drink and becomes a part of the water supply for residents farther downstream.
Public Water and Wastewater SystemsMost cities and towns operate their own water supply and wastewater systems. An increasing number of counties have also begun to operate water distribution and sewage treatment facilities in areas where wells and septic tanks cannot provide safe water and safe wastewater disposal. Some cities and counties cooperate with one another in producing water or sewage services. In a few parts of the state, special water and sewer agencies have been created by local governments to operate water and sewer facilities for the entire area. Examples include the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utility District and the Orange Water and Sewer Authority. Other counties, such as Catawba, have loaned money to local municipalities so that they can extend water service to unincorporated areas.
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENTEverything you no longer want or need has to go somewhere. The solid wastes you generate—old newspapers, food scraps, used packaging, grass clippings—have to be disposed of safely. Chemicals from casually discarded trash can contaminate water. Garbage and trash also create a health hazard by providing a home for rats and other disease-bearing pests. Burning trash does not solve the problem of safe disposal because burning pollutes the air. Local government helps solve the problem of safe disposal of solid waste. But safe (and low cost) solid waste disposal also requires your cooperation and that of everyone in the community. The least expensive way to deal with waste is simply not to create it in the first place. Cutting out the use of packaging and disposable items, for example, can reduce waste considerably. In addition to encouraging waste reduction, local governments help solve the solid waste problem in three other ways. They support recycling. They help collect trash and garbage. And they provide sanitary landfills or incinerators so that wastes that cannot be recycled are safely buried or burned. Participation by the public is most important for recycling and waste collection. RecyclingRecycling wastes means using them as a resource to make new products. Thus, waste paper can be recycled to make new paper and old glass bottles can be recycled to make new bottles. In order to recycle materials, they must be separated—the paper from the glass, for example. Some recycling can be done at home. For instance, grass clippings and leaves can be turned into compost or mulch. One problem is that most people are not used to sorting their trash or to reusing it at home, but that is changing. Local governments encourage recycling by urging people to separate out materials that can be recycled and by telling people how they can reuse materials. They also support recycling by collecting recyclable materials. Some local governments pick up materials for recycling by sending collection crews house to house. An alternative is for the local government to operate recycling centers where people can deliver their recyclable materials. Most of the manufacturing of new products from discarded materials is done by private industry. Paper companies use wastepaper to make new paper. Glass companies use discarded bottles to make new bottles. Local governments that collect these recyclables sell them to the manufacturing companies. The money the governments receive helps pay the cost of collecting the materials. Some cities and counties are also actually making recycled products themselves. Several cities and counties have begun to use yard wastes (grass clippings, leaves, even chipped wood) to make compost or mulch. Local governments also support recycling by buying products made of recycled materials. By using recycled paper, for example, the governments create a greater demand for the old newspapers they want to sell to the companies that make recycled paper. Governments support recycling to protect natural resources. If old paper is reused, for example, fewer trees will need to be cut down to make new paper. Government officials also have a more direct interest in recycling: saving money. Burying trash in a sanitary landfill is very expensive. Burning solid wastes safely is even more expensive. Recycling is an excellent way to save money because it reduces the amount of material going into the landfill.
Solid Waste CollectionMost cities and towns provide for house-to-house collection of solid waste. Once or twice a week, the "garbage truck" comes down each street and the crew empties the trash from the cans outside each house. (Usually, these are city crews and trucks. In some municipalities, however, the city hires private companies to collect solid wastes.) The truck—called a "packer"—is specially designed to crush the waste and press it together tightly so that it takes up as little space as possible. Recycling collections are usually made on another day and with another kind of truck. The recycling truck has bins for different sorts of material. As the recycling crew empties the containers of recyclables left outside each house, they keep different kinds of materials separate. Most larger municipalities have door-to-door recycling collections. So do some counties. Catawba County was one of the first counties in the nation to provide house-to-house collection of recyclable materials. Most counties and many small towns do not provide house-to-house solid waste collection. Instead, residents of unincorporated areas either hire a private company to collect their trash or they take it to a waste collection site themselves. Bins to collect recyclable materials are also often placed at waste collection sites. Most counties operate several waste collection sites. Sometimes the waste collection site consists of a large (usually green) box into which people put their trash. The box is emptied regularly into a very large packer truck. But if the box is not emptied often enough, or if people are not careful how they handle their trash, waste can spill out of the box. "Green box" sites can become very smelly, trash-covered places and create health hazards. An alternative is the supervised waste collection site. Supervised sites have a packer right on the site. The packer operator sees that people put their trash into the packer, which immediately crushes the trash. Both the supervision and the immediate packing of the waste helps prevent the mess and hazard of "green box" sites. Public participation is important whether the waste collection site is supervised or not. Wherever there is no house-to-house collection, people have more responsibility for safe collection of wastes and for recycling. Some dangerous materials require special handling. State and federal regulations prohibit radioactive wastes and hazardous chemicals from being mixed with other solid wastes. These materials (including motor oil, paints and other household chemicals, tires, and batteries) must be kept separate and cannot be collected through the regular collection system. You, your family, and other people in the community are responsible for sorting out these materials and making sure that they are collected appropriately. Solid Waste DisposalOnce solid waste has been collected, local governments must dispose of it. Wastes can be recycled, burned, or buried. Each of these disposal methods requires special equipment and techniques to assure public safety. In North Carolina, each county is responsible for making sure solid wastes produced in the county are disposed of safely. Most counties operate their own landfills. Some counties hire private businesses or contract with cities to dispose of their solid wastes. You have already learned about the recycling of materials that are separated at the source. Newspaper, for example, cannot be mixed with garbage or other wastes if it is to be used for making new paper. Yard wastes need to be kept free of glass and metal if they are to be used for making compost. However, some recycling can occur from wastes that have been mixed together. In a materials recovery operation, people sort through the solid wastes that have been collected, picking out things such as glass and cardboard. After that the remaining wastes can be passed through magnets to remove iron, and another process to remove aluminum. Materials recovery from mixed waste is only done rarely because it is very expensive. Separation at the source is much less expensive and much more frequently done, but it requires active public support to be effective. The safe burning of wastes is also quite expensive. This process is called incineration and requires very special equipment. First, materials that will not burn (glass, metal, and rock, for example) must be sorted out. Then the burnable materials must be shredded. Special furnaces are required to burn the wastes at very high temperatures so that as many harmful chemicals as possible are destroyed by the fire. There is some smoke, however, even from a very hot, clean-burning fire. This smoke must be filtered and treated carefully to prevent air pollution. The most common way to dispose of solid waste is to bury it. Safe burial of wastes requires the construction and operation of a sanitary landfill. Sanitary landfills are quite different from the open dumps of the past. State and federal regulations require that solid wastes be buried only in a properly constructed landfill. Special care must be taken to assure that the landfill does not pollute surface water or ground water. The landfill pit must be lined with plastic so that rainwater will not carry chemicals from the waste into the ground water. Any liquids or gases that do escape from a landfill must be captured and treated before being released. Each day's waste must be covered with soil so that animals that might spread diseases are not attracted to the site. No fires are allowed. When the landfill is finally full, it must be covered more deeply with soil, planted with grass or trees, and monitored to make sure that any leaking liquids or gases are properly treated. Landfill operators direct the unloading of waste and see that it is properly covered. They must be specially trained to ensure safe handling of the wastes. The costs of the land, of constructing the landfill, and of operating it according to state and federal regulations are considerable. To help pay these costs, many counties charge users "tipping fees" for all the waste they unload in the landfill. Some cities and counties charge individual households or businesses for the costs of collecting and disposing of their solid waste. The more waste they produce, the more they pay. Other local governments finance solid waste collection and disposal with taxes. The public can help keep these costs as low as possible by cutting down on what they throw away, by sorting out recyclable materials from the rest of the trash, and by buying products made from recycled materials. PARKS AND RECREATIONMany local governments provide recreational opportunities for their residents. They build and maintain parks, which may have picnic tables, swing sets, ball fields, basketball and tennis courts, swimming pools, or other facilities. They operate recreation programs, which may include organized sports leagues, supervised swimming, instruction in crafts or games, and physical fitness programs. Parks provide safe, attractive places for people to enjoy themselves and to relax. Recreation programs extend opportunities for healthful exercise and relaxation.
Parks and recreation programs are staffed by people with many different specialties. A supervised swimming program, for example, requires a staff of qualified lifeguards. Not only must they know lifesaving techniques, but they must also know how to operate the pool's filtering system and how and when to add chemicals to keep the water safe for swimming. They also need to know how to communicate well with pool users to assure safe use of the pool. Similarly, the recreation assistants who referee games, teach sports, or lead crafts sessions need to know not only the rules and techniques specific to that activity, but also how to communicate effectively and to treat everyone fairly. Park maintenance workers use a range of skills to keep parks safe and clean. Park and recreation directors need to know about all of these operations and how to plan and coordinate them. Many directors have studied recreation administration in college. Buying the land for a park, landscaping it, and building park facilities is a major investment for local government. Each park needs to be designed and built for heavy public use. After all, a park is a success only if people use it. But heavy use creates much wear and tear. Thus, parks also require constant maintenance. Equipment wears out and must be repaired or replaced. Keeping a park clean and in good repair costs money. Vandalism—the purposeful destruction of property—creates an even greater need for maintenance. Often a city or county does not have enough money to repair or replace park equipment that is broken before it would normally wear out. People contribute to the success of a park by using it and by using it in ways that do not destroy the facilities or others' use and enjoyment of the park. Public cooperation is thus an essential part of every park and recreation program.
POLICE PROTECTIONLocal law enforcement officers are available to help every North Carolina resident. Except for some of the smallest towns, each municipality in the state has its own police department. Gaston County also has a police department, and Mecklenburg County and Charlotte have a merged police department. In the other 98 counties, sheriff's deputies provide police protection in unincorporated areas of the county and in towns without their own police department. Police officers and sheriff's deputies have similar duties and authority. In this section we will often refer to them together as "police." To carry out their work, police must have special training. They study both criminal law (which defines illegal behavior) and constitutional law (which defines your rights, including your rights if you are suspected of a crime). They learn how and when to use weapons and other self-defense measures. They learn how to gather information and evidence. Police officers also study ways to communicate clearly and to understand, respect, and deal with the differences among people. In fact, communicating with people and responding to their concerns for safety are today recognized as essential parts of police work. Most police realize that they need the respect and trust of the public. The people and the police must work together to produce safe communities. Police help protect you and your community in three ways. They investigate crimes, they provide other emergency assistance, and they conduct patrol and other crime prevention operations. Criminal InvestigationAlthough crimes are defined by the state legislature, most of the criminal investigation and crime prevention work in North Carolina is done by local police departments and sheriff's departments. Most criminal investigations begin when the victim or a witness calls the police. In many cities and counties, a special emergency telephone number, 911, reaches police and sheriff's departments. (Fire departments and emergency rescue squads can generally be reached through the 911 number, as well.) Trained telephone operators ask the caller to describe the problem and the location of the victim.
If the crime is in progress, if the victim is injured, if the crime is very serious, or if a suspect is still on the scene, the dispatcher will radio police to respond immediately. The caller will usually be asked to stay on the line to inform responding officers about changes in the situation and help direct them to the location. One or more officers might be dispatched, depending on the urgency and seriousness of the situation. Responding officers will stop any additional injury from happening and will make sure that emergency medical services are provided. The police will also arrest any suspects on the scene, interview the victim and witnesses about what happened, and inspect the scene. The officer in charge will then prepare an incident report, describing the crime and any suspects. If the crime has already occurred, the caller might be asked to wait for police to arrive, to make an appointment to meet with police at a more convenient time, or to give a report about the crime over the phone. Often only a single officer is dispatched to interview the victim or witness to a crime that has already occurred. After the responding officer interviews victims and witnesses and inspects the scene, he or she will write an incident report describing the crime and any suspects. Responding officers turn in their incident reports before they leave work each day. Their supervisors review these reports and decide which crimes should be investigated further. The most serious crimes are usually assigned to detectives who specialize in criminal investigation. The officer who wrote the report or other officers who were assigned to patrol the area where the crime occurred might also be asked to investigate further.
Criminal investigations seek to identify the person(s) suspected of the crime, to gather evidence that can be used in court to convict the suspect, to arrest the suspect, and to recover any stolen property. Public cooperation is essential to effective criminal investigations. In the first place, police rely on victims and witnesses to report crimes. Unless people are willing to tell police about incidents that appear to involve a crime, most crimes will never come to police attention. Moreover, most suspects are identified from witness accounts. Much of the work of criminal investigation is interviewing victims and witnesses to obtain as full and complete an account of the incident as possible. People must be willing and able to tell police what they saw if police investigations are to be successful.
Other Emergency AssistancePolice also respond to other emergencies, everything from crowd control to traffic hazards, from missing persons to noisy parties. Many times people call these problems to police attention by phone, and officers are dispatched by radio. Other times, police see problems and intervene directly. For example, unsafe drivers are often stopped by police who observe their hazardous driving. Municipal police also investigate traffic accidents, although sheriff's deputies typically do not. Traffic accidents on rural roads and highways in North Carolina are investigated by the State Highway Patrol. As with criminal investigations, public requests for service initiate most of the other emergency assistance police provide, and public cooperation with police is often needed for police assistance to be effective. Crime PreventionA large number of police activities are intended to help prevent crime. Police patrols (usually by car; sometimes on foot, bike, or horse) help discourage crime by making police visible throughout the community. Police sometimes concentrate their patrols in areas where there have been frequent reports of crime. In addition to patrol, police attempt to prevent crime by informing people about ways to protect their property and themselves. Police also help people learn non-violent ways to solve arguments and find ways to avoid getting involved in criminal activities. After all, police cannot be everywhere at once. Crime prevention depends on the entire community. WHO BENEFITS FROM PUBLIC SERVICES? As you have seen, user-focused
public services have both individual and community-wide benefits. If only the
customer benefits, private business can provide the service. People will buy a
service because they want it. No public money or authority is needed. Local
governments provide services when public officials decide there are important
community-wide benefits. These include the benefits of seeing that everyone has
access to essential services, as well as improvements for the community as a
whole. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Local Government in North Carolina, Second Edition -
Chapter 4, Public Services. |
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