Pick-up change irks Matusinec

A Well­ington North councillor is un­happy a change of dates for garbage pick-up around the county is causing problems for residents in Arthur.

At a recent council meeting councillor John Matusinec said the pick-up day changed from Fridays to Thursdays about a month ago.

“Since then, there’s just been a ton of complaints,” Matusinec said.

He explained there is a “cat problem” in certain parts of Arthur, and people were putting bags, partly exposed, into garbage pails.

“But now they won’t take that away,” he said.

He added that calls to Wellington County, which is in charge of garbage pick-up and disposal, suggested those officials believe it is Arthur’s problem “because they are our cats. A lot of people are switching to personal pick-up.”

Matusinec said the issue is something that needs to be ad­dressed.

He said business owners are concerned because they have had overflowing blue boxes and had used plastic recycling bags, so a person could still see everything that was in it.

“They’ve just been left to sit at the side of the road.”

He asked if the county could provide an answer as to why that was being done.

“It never happened before; it just seems to have started since the date changed.”

Mayor Mike Broomhead said that in regard to the blue box policy, he believes some things have changed.

“I’ve had more tags in the past few weeks than I’ve ever had ... on garbage not separated to their satisfaction.”

Broomhead said there has been changes about what can and cannot be picked up.

“I think it’s more than just the change of times.”