QUADEVILLE – Brudenell, Lyndoch and Raglan (BLR) council discussed the possibility of charging for extra garbage at municipal waste sites at the regular meeting on October 2.
Clerk Michelle Mantifel shared handouts with councillors on Shared Service Center of Excellence, an organization that focuses on blue box recycling. She said that some of the municipalities in Renfrew County have joined and wondered if BLR wanted to follow suit.
“It was provided for your information, there is costs involved, there is some savings, we would receive some more funding,” Mantifel said.
Councillor Phanenhour liked the idea. “I think it would be great if we could be a part of this group,” Phanenhour said.
Councillor Garry Gruntz said he had been at the Brudenell waste site recently and that there is a lot that needs to be done to improve the recycling situation.
“Camp Walden had been there and I don’t know the size of their container but most of it was pop cans and bottles that I could see in the garbage,” Gruntz said.
Phanenhour agreed that they do not recycle at the camp.
Councillor Steve Jessup wondered if they had decided to start charging them. Mantifel said they had not. “They better start complying or maybe we will a little bit,” Jessup said.
Lidtkie pointed out the fact that the camp does pay hefty taxes to the township but at the same time, notification should be sent to them that rules are rules and they apply to them when it comes to the recycling part.
“For a place called Camp Walden and the word ‘Walden’ is to be surrounded by trees and to promote the wilderness and to not put a pop can in a recycling bin is disgusting,” Phanenhour said.
While other methods have been tried, such as cards to give proof of residency in BLR Township, Jessup said he thinks that the other issue is they continue to take on a significant amount of other municipalities’ garbage.
“I honestly feel we’re beating around the bush on the inevitable, that we’re going to end up soon charging,” Jessup said.
“We are the only one in Renfrew County that does not charge,” Phanenhour said.
Mantifel said she would get some more details about the program and the matter could be further discussed at a later date.
REQUEST FOR EARLIER SNOWPLOWING
Lloyd Behnke, owner and operator of Lloyd and Faye Bus Lines came to the meeting to ask that the snow be plowed earlier in the morning. His main concern was his Bruceton Road school bus route in Hardwood Lake which he said on snowy days is not cleared by the time he is out on the roads.
Behnke said his earliest pick-up is on Bruceton Road at six-thirty, and that typically the plows don’t show up until after he’s gone down and back, trying to push his way through the snow as are many others who are heading out to work at that time.
“Can we not get the roads plowed a little earlier in the morning?” Behnke asked.
Road Superintendent Alvin Kauffeldt said that they typically start at around five o’clock in the morning. He said if the snowplows were to head first to clear Bruceton Road with a load of sand that it would mean the route from Palmer to there would not be cleared until later and other bus drivers would then complain.
“Someone’s going to have to be left to the last,” Kauffeldt said.
See more in the October 9, 2013 issue of The Valley Gazette.