GUELPH – Wellington County council will take another look at plans to upgrade the Rothsay Waste Transfer Station after some members balked at the $1-million price tag.
Following a discussion on planned upgrades to Elora and Rothsay transfer stations at the January solid waste services committee meeting, staff were requested to bring back a report to provide more information related to the Rothsay project.
That report, presented at the Feb. 13 committee meeting, explained that in the 2021 10-year capital budget, $450,000 was allocated for the upgrades at the Rothsay for 2022.
Cost of improvements in Elora at the time were estimated at $1.35 million.
However, the necessary approvals were not received from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.
Since that 2021 budget allocation was made, “inflation has increased dramatically,” the report states.
While the scope of work at Rothsay has remained the same since that time, the budget for the site was increased to $900,000 in 2024 to account for inflationary trends, the report notes.
The planned upgrades at Rothsay include a scale house and scale, as well as associated groundwork.
The report notes an additional allowance of $60,000 for detailed design and contract administration fees needs to be included in the project budget. Project consultants also recommend planning for additional contingency funding of 10%.
The report also points out only 9,201 transactions were processed at the Rothsay site, compared to 21,726 at the Riverstown landfill site, 27,873 at the Harriston transfer station, more than 83,000 at the Elora transfer station, 57,135 at the Belwood station and 20,221 at the county’s Aberfoyle site.
The report points out the Rothsay site is approximately 12 kilometres from Drayton, further than most of county’s other sites from its primary population centre.
“For this reason, much of the usage of the Rothsay site tends to be larger loads of waste or patrons dropping off items that cannot be disposed of through the curbside collection service,” the report notes.
While the Rothsay site is the least busy of the county’s waste facilities, the report points out it does serve as the primary waste facility for residents of Mapleton Township, “including the rapidly growing community of Drayton.”
The committee directed staff to “refresh” a February 2019 report on waste facility optimization, and report back to the May committee meeting.
That report had led to discussion on options for closing, opening or relocating waste facilities. Council at that time decided to keep all six existing waste facilities open at their current locations and focusing on a strategy of diverting waste.
“When we look at the usages and we see how low that particular station is, and knowing its proximity to Riverstown (24km from Drayton) and knowing that we have lots of changes coming forward with our blue boxes … I am having a hard time justifying a million dollars in upgrades to that station,” said councillor Mary Lloyd at the Feb. 29 county council meeting.
“I know that we need to have a proper facility for our staff to work in, but I’m also wondering at what point do we say this station is under-utilized and the money is better spent on upgrading something somewhere else?”
Lloyd also pointed out two county municipalities (Erin and Guelph/Eramosa) do not have transfer stations “and they have to drive quite a way to get to Riverstown or Belwood, or wherever they may be going, or paying an upcharge to come to Guelph.”
Councillor Steve O’Neill, who chairs the solid waste services committee, said, “I too had a real problem with $900,000 or $1 million and that’s why I’ve asked staff for some details on how we’re doing this.
“I have severe problems spending $1 million on that site.”
“That’s why the report was requested to go back to the overall strategy, because I suggest the committee had lots of reservations,” said Warden Andy Lennox.
