Addington Highlands Plans Big Clean Up For Earth Day

Craig Bakay | Mar 13, 2024

Earth Day itself this year is April 22 but Addington Highlands, the Land O’Lakes Garden Club and the Land O’Lakes Lions Club are getting together April 20 to clean up the community, including area roadways, as their contribution.

Garden Club representative Nawar Hage was at the regular Council meeting March 5 to make Council aware of what they have in mind as well as looking for input as to the logistics.

“Rebecca Clark is the real force behind this project but she had a previously scheduled medical procedure and couldn’t be here,” Hage said.

The idea is to have community volunteers meet at Barrie Hall in the morning where bags and gloves will be provided, she said. Then, the volunteers will head out into the community, picking up trash as they go. When finished, they will return to the Hall where the Lions will put on a thank-you barbecue.

“It’s really great to see people taking an interest in keeping the community clean and tying it into the Community Stewardship Program,” said Dep. Reeve Tony Fritsch. “But, while there will be no tipping fee for this program, it does impact workload and traffic, so there will be details to work out.”

“We’re expecting some items to be brought to Barrie Hall and some to be taken directly to the dump,” Hage said. “But we’re looking for your guidance.

“We want to know how we can cooperate with the Township to make it a successful day for volunteers, the Township and the garbage pickup process — a streamlined process.”

Roads and Waste Manager Brett Reavie said that given that Saturdays tend to be busy, he’d rather people didn’t take things directly to the dump.

“I’m thinking I’d rather keep people out of the waste sites,” Reavie said. “Maybe it could go into a bin at the Hall and then we could truck it all away.

“Larger items could be left on the roadside for pickup.”

But, he said, he didn’t want garbage bags left on the roadsides.

“We all know about all the raccoons in the area,” he said. “If it’s done on a Saturday, it might be a few days before we can get to picking it up and by that time, it’ll probably be back in the ditch again.”

He said he was also concerned about safety.

“We have some vests to give out,” Hage said. “And, we’ll be telling people to wear bright clothing.”

Reeve Henry Hogg pointed out that “Barrie Hall is not in our Township,” necessitating some coordination with North Frontenac Township.

“We are in communication with North Frontenac and expect to discuss this at their meeting March 15,” Hage said.

Fritsch said that he was a bit concerned people might misuse this opportunity to clean up their own back yards (“I could fill a dumpster just from my own back yard”) but conceded there likely wasn’t antyh that could be done about that and to trust to people’s better natures.

Fritsch said they would need a meeting outside of Council to work out the logistics.

“The more we streamline before, the less issues we have on the day,” Hage said. “The whole idea is starting a concept of ‘lets clean up our community regularly.’”

“Lots of residents pick up garbage on their own, but when you have an army of people out there doing it at the same time, it’s great,” said Coun. Ken Hook.

Council approved the event in principle, subject to a meeting to work out logistics.

Mental Health

Council agreed to once again participate in the Go Green in May for Mental Health promotion.

Dep. Clerk Patricia Gray said: “we’ll need to purchase all new ribbons and perhaps a few replacement signs but we still have some stock.”

Capital Improvements

It turns out that Northbrook is eligible for some My Main Street funding from the Federal Government.

Coun. Ken Hook gave some suggestions as to what they might apply for including street art but Council finally decided to apply for some cleanup funding (ie hiring a company that comes and removes junk) as well as some historical plaques.

Emergency Funding Denied

Emergency Management Ontario turned down the Township’s application for Emergency Management funding.