Addington Highlands Council,
may 5/08

Talking trash and budget increases

Addington Highlands Council has scheduled an extra budget meeting for this week to deal with requirements the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MoE) has placed on the township’s dump sites.

The township is considering the purchase of a used machine for compacting garbage at its three larger and two smaller waste sites, at a cost of about $100,000.

“I think I read that it was a matter of compacting weekly, and covering monthly,” said Reeve Henry Hogg, “and beyond the equipment costs there is the labour cost. It will likely be a union position, mostly in the summer, but it will cost $20,000, at least.”

“If we levy for the wages, do we have the reserves to cover the machine?” asked Councilor Janice Kerr.

“That's a political decision,” said township clerk/treasurer Jack Pauhl. “I've left the budget at the same rate as last year, but even if we are looking only at wages it will mean about a 2 or 3 per cent increase.”

A meeting was set for Wednesday, May 7, to look again at the budget. The budget is still scheduled to come forward for final approval at the May 20 meeting, at 7 pm in Denbigh.

Bag tags – A discussion about the different protocols for the township’s bag tag system led council to conclude that all bags that go over the hill should be tagged. Since waste attendants give out a tag for every box of recycling, some people bring untagged bags and boxes of recycling to cancel them out. Council agreed that for consistency’s sake the garbage bag should be tagged, and a new tag should be handed out for the next bag of garbage. As well, truck or trailer loads should not be filled with untagged garbage bags.

“The trailer fee is intended for loose material, brush etc., not bagged garbage,” said Reeve Hogg.

Although council agreed that in future all bags should be tagged, it was recognised that enforcement of this will be difficult.

Scrap metal pickup – Council will be considering an offer from Kimco to pay $180 per ton of scrap metal at township waste sites, including pick up. The Waste Management committee will consider the offer at a meeting to be held later this month.

Wildfires down – Fire Chief Casey Cuddy reported that there has been only one “actual wildfire thus far this year as compared to 15 or 20 last year at this time. That's not really surprising considering that we still had snow on the ground when the wildfire season started this year, and a snowstorm on the very day.”

Cuddy said the department is struggling for available firefighters during the day because many of the fighters are working more now that the good weather is here.

Reeve Hogg expressed concern about the condition of the Northbrook Fire Hall. “It looks pretty bad,” Hogg said.

“We can replace the fascia, but we should redo the roof if we do,” Casey Cuddy replied.

“I think it's going to be a year or two before we put a new Fire Hall up even after we approve it,” said Hogg.

“I'll get a cost on replacing the roof and the soffits and fascia,” said Cuddy

“In the meantime we are setting some money aside for a new fire hall,” said Reeve Hogg.