Mountain View County council has passed a motion authorizing a $600 annual contribution to help fund the Cremona recycling centre. The move came during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
“The Village of Cremona would like to ensure the recycling centre remains open to serve rural residents and businesses,” county CAO Tony Martens said in a briefing note to council.”
The village had proposed two options: that the county pay $50 per hour for cleaning the centre plus any tipping fees at the landfill, plus mileage; or a $600 per month flat fee plus tipping fees at the landfill, plus mileage.
In a letter to council, Cremona CAO Luana Smith said, “I determined these amounts based on the average amount of staff time in cleaning up the site and the additional time taking the loads of garbage to the Didsbury landfill. There have been times when three trips have been required to remove all the garbage and debris left at the site. This included tires, oil, garbage, fence posts, barbwire, metal, etc.”
Council passed a motion authorizing a $600 annual contribution that does not include additional money for landfill costs, etc.
Following the vote, Reeve Bruce Beattie called the arrangement fair.
“Unfortunately people bring more than recyclables to the recycling areas and sometimes drop off garbage that should not be there and that has to be cleaned up, and those places have to be managed,” said Beattie.
“It is unfortunate that people don't appreciate the fact that this costs all the taxpayers dollars. We want to make those facilities available to our residents, not only in the towns but also for the rural area. The idea is to compensate the town to manage that facility.”
Asked if giving Cremona money for its recycling centre could lead other towns in the region to ask for similar funding, he said, “I expect that we will be talking about it in our memorandum of agreement discussions. I expect the other towns will want to talk to the county about how we can contribute to those costs.”
Dumping of garbage in county ditches remains a problem, he said.
“It's always an issue,” he said. “It's interesting that those issues are often more pronounced in the area of those recycling centres or transfer centres. Our county crews are constantly cleaning our ditches of garbage that people throw away. It's a cost to all ratepayers.”
"It is unfortunate that people don't appreciate the fact that this costs all the taxpayers dollars."Bruce BeattieMVC reeve
