Minto council has agreed to allow RV travellers use of a dump at a facility here – provided they are willing to pay for the privilege.
For years, travellers were allowed free use of an unlocked dumping station at the Harriston Community Centre grounds. However, in July of 2014, Minto waste and wastewater foreman Wayne Metzger advised council the public works department had received complaints of heavy trailer traffic entering the Harriston ball park to unload sewage.
Metzger said at the time word had spread the local facility is open for free dumping and approximately 60 trailers were reported using the service in a two-week period.
“The town does not have capacity to accommodate sewage from the travelling public when there is no direct benefit to Minto ratepayers,” stated a report from Metzger and public works director Brian Hansen.
The report provided two options for compelling users to pay for the service, either by requiring town staff to open the facility as needed or by installing a system that uses cash or credit card to unlock the dumping station access lid. Instead, council opted to simply lock the dumping station and make it available only when the town is hosting campers at the ball diamond facilities.
However, at the Feb. 17 meeting, council received a letter from a former user of the service, asking the town to reconsider.
“We have been using this service about four or five times a season, but we have no other place to dump our trailer,” wrote Barb and Gary Dahms, of Atwood.
The Dahms questioned the actual amount of traffic using the site.
“In all our years of using this site we only ever met one other trailer there,” the letter stated.
Contrary to opinions expressed by councillors last July, the letter stated trailer users purchase gas, groceries and other goods while passing through town.
The letter urged councillors to “please talk this over at your meeting and see if you can come up with a solution,” and added, “We would be happy to put a deposit on a key.”
While agreeing council made the right call to stop the un-monitored use of the facility, councillor Judy Dirksen suggested council should take another look at the issue.
“This has been going on for years. I think the right thing to do was stop what was happening because there were just too many people making free use of it. But this is a very respectful letter and its well written and they have some good points,” she said, adding, “Is there a way we could look at providing this service for a fee, for people who are out of town?”
Mayor George Bridge noted the town arranged to provide keys to the dumping station for local users, but the idea of having staff open the facility on request for transient users was deemed impractical.
“By the time you pay someone to go down there, you’re really not making anything back,” said Bridge, who suggested having staff consider possible options to accommodate out of town users “who are willing to pay for the service and we can monitor it that way.”
Council agreed to receive the correspondence and directed staff to repair a report detailing options.
At its March 3 meeting, council agreed to permit usage of the dumping station by Minto residents who pay a $20 key deposit and residents within 50km of Minto who pay a $20 key deposit and $80 for up to five years of use.
