Sundre's operations manager presented council with a report during a June 2 workshop recommending the municipality's recycling centre be relocated.
During a phone interview, Jim Hall said last week that he had proposed an alternative site but could not confirm potential locations as the details had not yet been publicly discussed by council.
The conversation was previously brought up by Coun. Cheri Funke during the May 28 meeting in light of ongoing misuse of the Sundre Recycling Centre located along Sixth Street SE near the soccer fields south of the Sundre Royal Canadian Legion branch.
“As we all know, it is a problem,” she said.
“I wanted to bring it to council so that we can discuss how to fix it, or if we can fix it.”
The councillor said the municipality has about $235,000 in the solid waste reserve and that the issue could be dealt with this year as opposed to making plans for 2019.
Mayor Terry Leslie said he had recently attended a meeting with the Mountain View Regional Waste Management Commission, and that there are a number of issues pertaining to solid waste and recycling not only in Sundre but also throughout Mountain View County as well.
“For an initial discussion, we can recognize that the current recycling centre, we’ve got some issues. There are folks that are not using it properly,” the mayor said.
“The options are pretty straightforward: man it, close it, monitor it more closely. Some of those things are budget-related.”
Funke said her understanding is that the relocation of the centre from the former site near the Sundre Pioneer Museum off of First Avenue SW had been a temporary measure.
“Ever since then, I’ve been waiting to find out if that’s where it’s supposed to be, or if we need to move it,” she said.
“I don’t think this project can wait any longer.”
Nelson assured the councillor that the operations manager shares the same concerns and has a detailed report on his findings along with recommendations.
Coun. Richard Warnock said the issue has been ongoing for some time and that while a solution was needed, he is against any proposal to simply shut down the site.
“There’s not a lot of options, just a forewarning,” said Hall, who in a separate interview added that closing the site down was not included among his recommendations.
“But I wanted to tell you that for the last, I’m going to say two months, all of our recycles are going to the landfill, every time. So this is an emerging issue.”
Council was set to further consider the issue and potentially provide administration with direction during a budget deliberation workshop on June 2. The Round Up followed up on Wednesday, June 6 with Hall, who said while the issue was discussed, an official council direction had not yet been decided upon.
