Addington Highlands Council - August 7, 2012

Jeff Green | Aug 09, 2012

Ralph Seamons, of Tanglewood Marina on the north shore of Weslemkoon Lake, appeared before Council

He brought Jim Reynolds along with him. Reynolds is a seasonal resident on Weslemkoon, and a client of Ralph Seamons' garbage delivery business. Seamons has been having difficulty complying with some new dumping provisions that Addington Highlands brought in last year, in particular the requirement that all recyclable items be placed in a blue box and handed to the dump attendant, who then inspects the items and carries the box up a ramp to dump the items in township bins.

Seamons, who has been running his business since 2001, has developed his own system. He transports the recyclable materials to the waste disposal site on Hartsmere Road in “totes” that are the size of 8 or 9 blue bins. Until the new rules took effect, he would dump the contents of the totes in the township bin, but now he must use the totes to fill one blue box at a time, and wait while the attendant checks the contents of the blue box, carries it up a ramp and dumps it into the township bin.

“I take 16 totes full of recyclables once a week during the summer. Now instead of simply dumping the contents once, I have to fill the blue box 125 times, and wait for the attendant to dump the blue box. It costs me a lot of time and the attendant as well,” said Seamons.

He said it now takes 6 hours to do his recycling run when it used to take 2, and asked that he be able to use a less onerous system, preferably a return to the old system. He offered to enter into a contract with the township, with specific terms being spelled out.

“The problem is that contaminants, non-recyclable materials, were getting into our recycling stream and when that happens our recycling load is rejected at the recycling depot in Renfrew. Each time that happens it costs us up to $1,000 in total,” said Reeve Hogg.

Jim Reynolds said that he hopes the township can make an arrangement with Seamons, who said he might get out of the garbage business if the situation is not resolved.

“We have steadily increased our recycling, and I fear that if this is not resolved we will end up with no service, and that will result in garbage being dumped at the side of the road,” said Reynolds, who added that one of the attractions of Seamons' service to them is the fact they can deliver their garbage and recycling 24 hours a day instead of having to deal with limited township dump hours.

Seamons also asked that he be able to dump his trailer full of bagged garbage onto the waste pile instead of having to pull the bags out of his trailer one at a time and place them on the pile.

“I am 73 years old and I don’t want to have to do this anymore,” he said.

Reeve Hogg pointed out that everyone in the township must follow the same rules. He also said that Mr Seamons' trailer has not always been successful in dumping all the bags on the waste pile, with some leaking out and having to be cleaned up by township crews.

“We need to come to a solution for this,” said Seamons, “there have been problems in the past but I’m talking about the future.”

Council members asked questions of Seamons, but did not have time to address his requests, which they will look at in September.

Truck and paving contracts awarded – One large and one small contract was awarded at the meeting. The large one was the purchase of a plow/sander at a cost of $193,000 from Winslow Geromaly Motors of Peterborough ($225,000 was allocated to the purchase in the 2012 budget).

The smaller item was the paving contract for the handicapped parking sites at the new Denbigh community centre at a cost of $4,800.

Flinton Rec Centre washrooms

Council decided to purchase new doors and stalls for the Flinton Recreation Centre washrooms, as the existing ones are 25 years old and failing. Two quotes will be sought for materials and installation.

Agreements with North Frontenac

Two agreements that were discussed at the joint meeting between Addington Highlands and North Frontenac were ratified. One is to allow Addington Highlands residents access to the Highway 506 waste site in North Frontenac for the disposal of hazardous waste. The second was for a joint protocol for declaring a fire ban.