Council split on brush program

After a 3-2 vote, Wellington North council has decided to move forward with brush pick-up and drop-off days for its two urban communities.

On April 4, council agreed to a roadside wood brush pick up program on four days in each community and four brush event days in each community during spring and fall.

Last fall, council suspended the brush drop-off locations at the public works yards in Arthur and Mount Forest after much of the waste was not considered brush.

When the public works committee could not decide on March 30 how to move forward, two options were proposed at the April 4 council meeting.

While all councillors agreed on option 5B – road side pick up of wood brush for four days in each community – the contentious issue was between options 1B and 4.

Option 1B includes four wood brush and yard waste event days in each community held at the Waste Management facility in Mount Forest and a yet-to-be-determined site in Arthur. The cost would be $13,600 to $21,600, depending on the volume. It is estimated four to eight containers would be filled at each wood brush and yard waste event day.

Public works director Matthew Aston said those estimates do not include disposal, which raises the total cost to $19,920 to $34,480.

Option 4 would continue the brush drop-off sites at the public works yard in each community, but would confine the piles into pit silos. The estimated cost would be approximately $10,000 for construction of the pits and signage.

Councillor Sherry Burke, who was in favour of option 4, explained the brush drop-off is a great need for urban residents. “The urban residents are not the same as the rural residents, we don’t have a lot of options of how to get rid of this waste that we have,” she said.

“We kind of as council and the township dropped the ball … we should have been putting out notices and educating the public because we heard time and time again at public meeting that they weren’t aware that (yard waste) wasn’t supposed to be there.”

Councillor Steve McCabe took a different view on the rural-urban debate.

“I agree with you that there is a difference between rural and urban … Rural doesn’t have pick up at all and we’ve never had it,” he said. McCabe added he is concerned about the pits because there would be no containment, resulting in seepage after rain and the pits would be open 24/7.

Councillor Lisa Hern said the rising cost of garbage pick-up/drop-off could lead to more dumping at the proposed silos.

“Now that [the county is] picking up rural garbage … the price of a bag of garbage is going to go up to $2 at the dump, you may start finding more things show up there,” Hern said.

However, Burke said there would be separate piles for yard waste and brush.

“With the silos, if we put the onus on the residents to separate out because we’ve heard they want to be able to have this service,” she said.

But McCabe disagreed, saying, “You’re always going to get household garbage mixed in, I don’t believe people are going to separate their stuff.”

Hern said her biggest concern was the liability. Those thoughts were echoed by Mayor Andy Lennox.

“We have a known hazard … where we have people interacting with a work site plus access 24 hours a day … if something were to happen, how could we defend ourselves?” the mayor asked.

Council decided in a 3-2 vote to move forward with option 1B, with councillors Burke and Dan Yake opposed and McCabe, Hern and Lennox  in favour.

Council voted in favour of promoting Wellington County’s “master composter program” and to recognize the need for special services after significant weather events.

Council also directed staff to bring a report at the end of the season to measure the program’s successes and failures.

Wood brush, yard waste

In Mount Forest, event days will be held at the Waste Management facility on Industrial Drive on May 7, June 11, Sept. 10 and Oct. 8.

In Arthur, the drop-off location has yet to be determined, but the dates are April 23, May 28, Sept. 24 and Oct. 22.

Road-side brush pick-up

Township staff will continue to carry out monthly pick-up of wood brush. Mount Forest dates are April 27, May 25, Sept. 28 and Oct. 26. Arthur dates are April 6, May 4, Sept. 7 and Oct. 5.

 

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