Wellington County has been involved in fights and controversy over garbage issues since it began looking for a dump site back in the 1980s.
Now a chairman of the county?s solid waste services committee has prepared an annual report for council, with very few fights or arguments listed among the highlights.
Instead, Don McKay told council last month the 2011 budget was 7.5 per cent less than the previous year, and that helped keep taxes down.
McKay reported the county is now in a partnership with the Canadian Diabetes Association making each county waste facility a collection point with a bin where residents can drop off used textiles at no cost for that association, which has a program to collect them.
McKay had other good News. He said the committee reviewed the user bag fees and tipping fees and decided there would be no increase in 2012.
Erin has had issues with the county solid waste services for several years, and McKay said at the request of the town?s mayor, staff was directed to prepare a cost and benefits analysis for these services for the entire county, with the following options:
– status quo; and
– county wide collection of bagged garbage, bulking items, and box recyclables for consideration of the committee this year.
And speaking of blue boxes, McKay noted that starting that month, cartons, drink boxes, and frozen food boxes could be added to the county blue boxes for recycling.
He said in his report those would be recycled into new products such as printing paper, paper bags, and tissue paper.
McKay also note that the county won the Municipal Waste Association?s 2010 silver Promotion and Education award for best print advertisement and a bronze award for Best Brochure Pamphlet, Booklet.
McKay concluded his report stating ?In the coming year the solid waste services committee will and staff will continue to work to improve operations efficiencies, increase participation in curbside collection and evaluate rural collection service. Where possible, more opportunities to divert waste from landfill will be introduced.?
County councillor Lou Maieron, also the mayor of Erin, told council that from his taxpayers? point of view ?We were overpaying.?
He said Erin pays the county $500,000 a year to solid waste services, and with user pay, its residents do not get services.
He noted his town ?lost Hillsburgh? when the county was forced to shut that transfer station due to contamination problems, and Maieron argued collecting in urban and rural areas can be cost effective.
Maieron said, ?I don?t know if this is a political issue … that some get a Cadillac or Rolls Royce and others don?t … ?
He said the county ?may have to go to area rating.?
Maieron said with $500,000, ?I can go through the five year capital plan and find a lot of uses.?
McKay reminded Maieron that staff is doing a cost analysis. He added that Erin comments in a survey included ?We love our new pricing in Erin,? and ?Way cool – no more driving to the transfer station.?
Councillor Ken Chapman, who also represents Erin, told council he hopes when the county goes to rural and urban pickup, the issue does not ?become political.? He said rural pickup in Guelph-Eramosa shows that such a system works.
But councillor Gord Tosh reminded him the county did tests on rural pickup, and while it worked in some places, it did not do so well in others.
Further, Tosh added, the county had planned a new transfer station for the Erin area and, led by Maieron, that proposal was killed.
Maieron replied that he was ?elected on that basis. I hope the political punishment stops.?
He added the town is lucky to have a recycler who takes in a lot of materials.
Maieron added that decision ?was made a long time ago? and pointed out the county always tries to provide equal services for such things as roads.?
At that point, Warden Chris White ended the discussion.
He said the issue is ?not black and white,? and council can wait until it hears from its committee on the report.
