WELLINGTON NORTH – Councillor Dan Yake introduced three notices of motion at a recent Wellington North meeting, two of which will be discussed at the next meeting on Oct. 13.
Yake is seeking clarification on the new county yard waste service, information regarding a residents’ letter about London Road in Mount Forest, and a financial update on phase one of the Arthur wastewater plant.
Yard Waste
The first notice of motion to be discussed at the future meeting is a request for township staff to produce a report on what will happen if Wellington North residents choose not to participate in the Wellington County yard waste program.
The requested report would also offer insight into whether the township should produce its own advertising campaign to inform residents of the new program.
Originally Yake’s notice of motion asked if township staff still plans to pick up leaves that are raked to the side of the road.
“We’ve had a lot of discussion in regards to the whole waste, yard waste pickup but I know people are still going to rake their leaves to the roads and are we still going to pick them up or are we going to demand that they’re in bags,” Yake said.
“I guess, I’m just looking for clarification so that I can pass that on to people that are asking the question because there’s still the question being asked.”
Director of operations Matt Aston said the intent is to fully move residents onto the county program, where they would be required to put out brown paper bags and Wellington County employees would be picking them up the weeks of Oct. 26 and Nov. 23.
“Road staff are going to be monitoring the catch basins, just like residents should be monitoring the catch basins, because we don’t want to be in a situation where we have catch basins blocked over the winter,” Aston said.
“And I think we’ll be watching it but the best way to make sure they don’t end up on catch basins is if they’re put into brown bags and the county will pick them up on the two dates that they’ve put forward, would be my comment to that.”
Mayor Andy Lennox said Yake’s point was “a good one,” but, “I just don’t want to get too deep into the discussion here until we make sure everybody has an opportunity to come prepared to the discussion.”
To make a report right now would be difficult, CAO Mike Givens said, because the township is waiting to see how the program goes in the township.
“We want to observe and see how well that program, how effective it is and then make some decisions about what we need to do locally,” Givens said.
Councillor Sherry Burke suggested the township putting out its own public service announcement in local media.
“Not everyone is on Twitter, Facebook or has access to the internet,” she said. “I talked to several senior residents. They don’t have that access but I have been telling them that their leaves need to go into either the brown yard waste bags or containers that are marked clearly ‘yard waste.’”
he also said there has been pushback from people who think they may have 30 or 40 bags.
While there’s no limit on how many yard waste bags can be put out, Yake agreed that that some people could be putting out even more bags.
“I think it’s clear we understand the concern as well,” Givens said.
“This is a change … some changes go well and some do not. And we have an overall concern from the roads standpoint as it relates to catch basins and everything else that we don’t want just piles laying all over the place.
“We’ll figure out the best way to address it in the hopes that people do buy into the program and utilize the program because we think it can be affective.”
While Givens didn’t think a notice of motion was necessary, Yake went ahead with the notice to request a report about what will happen if people rake leaves to the curb and don’t put them in bags and whether the township should initiate its own awareness campaign for the new county program.
London Road
The second notice of motion that will be discussed on Oct. 13 is a request for a report on how the township will deal with issues outlined in a letter from Don Nickell regarding London Road in Mount Forest, mostly increased amounts of dust.
“I’d like to see or ask for again a report in regards to London Road … current issues, future issues, there’s a whole number of things, but I think we need to see what they are so that we can at least address the letter that came from Mr. and Mrs. Nickell,” Yake said.
However, the Nickell letter was already considered and received at the Sept. 14 council meeting and was not pulled for further discussion.
“I guess obviously I didn’t catch it,” Yake said.
He added, “So after going back and seeing it …. I’d like again to have that discussion or have a report from staff in regards to what he was asking in his letter.”
Wallace said a notice of motion is required to reconsider the item.
“I think it’s complicated, Dan, by the fact that we’ve already had this before as something we’ve dealt with,” Lennox said.
He suggested Yake instead introduce a motion that highlights “some of the issues that you want to have staff give feedback on.”
Yake agreed to the alternative and the notice of motion for the report will be discussed at the next council meeting.
Arthur wastewater plant
Yake also proposed a notice of motion asking staff to bring forward a financial report in regards to phase one of the Arthur wastewater plant.
“We’re getting to the point where phase one is closing in, or supposed to be closing in on completion,” he said.
“So I’d like to see kind of where we stand from a financial perspective if that would be possible.”
Givens said the township could operate under the direction of council to produce a report rather than going through a notice of motion.
“I know that the quarterly report that CIMA (Canada Inc.) provides is on the horizon so we can maybe tie the two together, add on the financial aspect at the same time if that’s agreeable,” Givens said.
Yake agreed.
