| Jun 07, 2017


How North Frontenac disposes of waste and recycling is about to go through some major changes.

At a special meeting of Council last Saturday at Clar-Mill Hall in Plevna, Public Works Manager Jim Phillips went through the proposed changes, not all of which were met with public, or Council, approval.

Phillips said he expects to have a new bylaw ready for the June 30 Council meeting.

He said that much of the impetus for changes stem from the cost to dispose of bulky waste, construction materials and white goods.

“We budgeted $12,000 last year for this and our costs were double that,” Phillips said. “We’re not collecting enough to reflect the cost of disposal for these items.”

Essentially, the proposals are two-fold. First, tipping fees will increase on things like fridges/freezers (to $30 from the current $20), mattresses/box springs/sofas (to $20 from the current $15), sofa beds (to $30 from the current $20) and recliners (to $10 from the current $5).

Second, bag tags will still be used but only for the disposal of household waste and bag tags will not be issued for additional bags of recycling (Phillips is recommending a 30-days grace period after passage of the bylaw to use accumulated bag tags for bulky waste and items other than household waste.)

Currently, residents have been able to use recycling tags to dispose of bulky items instead of cash at an exchange of one tag per every $2 of tipping fee.

“In order to keep our waste sites for as long as we can, these changes need to happen,” Phillips said. “If we didn’t divert these items, our waste sites would fill up quickly.”

He said current estimated remaining lifespans for the sites are: 506 – 30 years; Mississippi – 34 years; Plevna – 49 years.

“Recycling comes at a cost,” he said. “Recycling goes to a Materials Recovery Facility in Belleville and changing markets determine if we get a rebate, have to pay or it’s free.”

“My concern is that it might encourage people to find a quiet back road (to dispose of bulky items),” said resident Fred Fowler.

“I’m hearing that people want to use their extra tags for building waste,” said Coun. Denis Bedard.

Mayor Ron Higgins expressed concern that a lot of the bulk waste coming in was from outside the municipality.

“Just the other day we had an incident where someone brought in nine mattresses from a two-bedroom cottage,” Higgins said.

Hunting for camps
With improvements to mapping technology, rural municipalities are finding out all sorts of things.

In North Frontenac, it turns out that several hunting camps, once thought to be on Crown Land, are actually on Township land, often on road allowances.

“It was a misunderstanding with the Crown in the ’50s,” said Coun. Gerry Martin. “Now there are liabilities and actual paperwork that has to be taken care of.

“It’s another user pay thing.”

To that end, Tara Mieske, clerk/planning manager, presented a proposal to Council for a $130 application fee and an annual fee of $75 to cover costs for these properties. With the fees, Council enters into licence agreements which allows the use of road allowances for access or for use of buildings on Township land.

“In most cases, building permits were issued and a fee was paid to the Crown, who then paid the Township,” Mieske said.

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