SUNDRE — There will for the time being be no changes to the municipality’s compost pickup schedule.
Following the recent tabling of a discussion on whether to postpone compost pickups until March or to proceed as per the regular schedule at an increased cost, council recently decided to maintain regular pickups.
Recapping the situation to date, Linda Nelson, chief administrative officer, reminded council during the regular Nov. 23 meeting conducted by teleconference that compost collection is unavailable at the site the town’s contractor, Environmental 360 Solutions Inc., had previously been sending it to in Olds.
The first option initially proposed by administration was to transport the organic material to Stickland Farms in Penhold, which would represent increased trucking and tonnage costs.
The second option was simply to cease compost pickups, which would then resume March 1, 2021, said Nelson, adding that approach would represent a cost savings of about $1,425 per pickup, plus tonnage fees.
However, in a subsequent follow-up conversation with the contractor, Nelson said a third option was presented.
“The organic collection could be temporarily discontinued with the intent to reinitiate the pickup on March 1, 2021, and to temporarily exchange the compost with an extra garbage pickup. The cost would be the same,” she said, adding residents in this scenario would for that period of time be asked to use the black garbage bins on days originally scheduled for the green bin.
As an additional point for consideration, Nelson said there was a concern from the municipality’s operations department with regards to 117 cat as well as 343 dog owners who use the compost for their pets’ feces. But she added the contractor verified this waste would remain available for disposal in the regular garbage pickup until the compost service resumed in a few months.
With Nelson’s presentation concluded, Coun. Cheri Funke asked about making a motion to transport compost material to the facility in Penhold at an additional cost of $115 per extra pickup, plus the additional tonnage fee, wondering if the extra cost could be drawn from the solid waste surplus account instead of affecting ratepayers.
Chris Albert, director of corporate services, pointed out that existing fees that are being paid for solid waste would cover the additional costs involved in that option.
“So, there wouldn’t be a need to transfer from a restricted surplus,” said Albert.
Mayor Terry Leslie said solid waste has in recent years run surpluses, and sought to confirm that the option in Funke's motion would remain within budget without having to draw from reserves.
“That is correct,” answered Albert.
Funke proceeded to officially motion to choose the first option to temporarily transport organics to Stickland Farms.
Speaking in favour of the motion, Leslie said, “if we make changes to our schedule, then we will run into difficulty with our residents perhaps being confused potentially by some of our changes.”
Directing an inquiry to administration, Coun. Todd Dalke asked about how much the total increased cost would amount to over the several months.
“And my second question is, when we also spoke about replacing it with garbage, or one or two extra pickups, is there middle ground to still have additional garbage pickup around Christmastime instead of the compost?” Dalke said.
Nelson said there is a possibility of an additional recycling pickup during the holiday season, and turned to Albert to respond to the question about the cost.
Calculating an estimated total, which could not be precisely determined since the amount in part depends on the variable weight of tonnage trucked out, Albert said the cost over the three-month period would be roughly $4,275.
The mayor called a vote on the motion, which carried unopposed.
