OLDS — The Olds Lions Club and Town of Olds have postponed the fifth Pick Up Garbage (PUG) Day to June 3 from May 14, due to new pandemic restrictions.
PUG Day chair Henry Czarnota said the club made the decision last week after Doug Wagstaff, the town’s community services director, made the suggestion.
Among those restrictions, announced by premier Jason Kenney on May 4, the maximum number of people allowed at outdoor gatherings has been cut from 10 to five.
PUG Day is a joint effort between the Town of Olds, the Lions Club and several schools that take part.
“The town has asked that any public project be postponed until early June, just to ensure that the public maintains safe distancing and such, so we’re going to postpone May 14 to Thursday, June 3,” Czarnota said during an interview.
Czarnota said the club chose June 3 because it’s a school day while Friday, June 4 is apparently not one.
He said the plan is to publish more details on the event in the June 1 edition of The Albertan.
“We were already ready to go with various models that would keep people safe, but we can’t ensure how the public will respond, right?
“Students would be able to participate with their own family, cohort, even though they’re not in school. They could walk around their neighborhood with mom and dad or grandma, so school participation wasn’t a real concern,” Czarnota said.
“We were breaking up the Lions Club into groups of five, so they would arrive at staggered times so that we wouldn’t have more than several getting bags and gloves and other paraphernalia they need to pick up garbage.
“So we had a contingency plan that I think would work, but as Doug points out, we really can’t control how the public will react."
He said given that concern, the club felt it "seemed reasonable” to go with the town’s suggestion to postpone it.
