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THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1996 PAGE 7.
Councillors fight to get county out of landfill business
The county should get out of the
landfill business once the Waste
Management Masterplan is com-
pleted and not get involved in co-
ordinating use of the Morris Twp.
and Exeter sites, several councillors
told Huron County council Thurs-
day.
Councillors were reacting to a
proposal that $250,000 a year for
the next three years be set aside for
waste management. The money
would help Morris and Exeter buy
new equipment and change proce-
dures to optimize use of their land-
fill sites so that they could begin to
accept garbage from other munici-
palities whose landfill sites had
been filled_
But Colborne Reeve Bill Van-
By Janice Becker
Citizen staff
Effective Nov. 9, there were
changes made at Sparling's
Propane, Blyth which sees Great
Western Resources take over the
haulage of liquefied gases.
"Sparling's will continue to have
their own fleet of trucks to ship
their product," said David Sparling.
The SLT fleet will continue to ship
other companies' products as they
Continued from page 1
the county is going to keep taking
the money and putting it in a
reserve.
Tom Cunningham, reeve of Hul-
lett agreed with the need to exam-
ine all expenditures. He said it
wasn't good enough to simply say
we're going to have a zero per cent
increase and that the departments
need to be examined to see if there
are other savings.
The proposal to continue to col-
lect the $1.25 million came about
in part because of provincial cut-
backs to road grants and the fact
the province is handing over Hwys.
83, 84 and 87 without providing
enough money to bring them up to
county standards. Although the
province has offered a one-time
grant of $4.46 million to help
upgrade the roads, the county esti-
mates it will cost an extra $1.96
million to repair the roads and
bridges. Also, because the county
road department would have 70.6
km. of extra roads to maintain, it
would require $250,000 in
improvements to its Zurich yard
and improvements to the Wroxeter
yard.
County Engineer Sandra Lawson
also warned council that the Crom-
stone said taxpayers in some
municipalities have already paid a
lot of money to develop their own
landfill sites and shouldn't then
have to provide money for the other
two sites.
Gary Davidson, director of plan-
ning explained that Morris and
Exeter need to be compensated for
the shortened life their landfill will
have and helped to make the
changes needed to serve as zone
landfill sites for the north and south
of the county. Day-to-day opera-
tions will be funded by tipping
fees, he said.
Mason Bailey, reeve of Blyth,
argued that with so much up in the
air with the government pushing
for municipal amalgamation, there
had before.
After an analysis of where they
were going and the growth of the
company over the years, Sparling
said they decided to concentrate on
their own customers and the core
business of product supply and dis-
tribution. Sparling's Propane sold
SLT (Sparling's Liquid Transport, a
for-hire transportation subsidiary)
to Great Western Resources, allow-
ing Great Western to continue their
commitment as a dedicated com-
mon carrier and become the largest
bie "Who does What?" Commis-
sion has recommended the province
turn over even more highways to
local municipalities. There is some
suggestion here, however, that a
portion of the tax on gasoline be
devoted to helping offset mainte-
nance costs.
Mickle said he understood that as
long ago as last May the county
was aware that there might be more
highway transfers including Hwys.
86 and 4 and perhaps even portions
of Hwy. 8. "I understand that if
they transfer their highways there is
no compensation at all."
Given that, he said, the county
should be going back to demand
fair compensation from Minister of
Transportation Al Palladini but if
the county has already transferred
money from its capital fund to meet
highway needs the minister will
think they have the money. More-
over, he said, it's wrong to take
money that taxpayers thought was
going for one purpose (a landfill
site) and now give it to roads.
Warden Bill Clifford said he felt
the provision to reallocate the
reserve and continue to collect the
$1.25 million was indicative of the
good financial planning the county
has undertaken in recent years to
have financing in place for projects
before the projects are undertaken.
should be a moratorium on spend-
ing for the next three to five years
until the new ground rules are
clear. Davidson, however, said that
in three to five years some munici-
pal landfills will be full and those
municipalities will need the use of
Morris or Exeter.
Talk about the county not spend-
ing money angered Bert Elliott,
reeve of Morris. The county had
saved millions of dollars, he said,
but now councillors were arguing
over money to help his township
improve its landfill to accept other
municipalities' waste. "If the coun-
ty can't come up with money
upfront to equip these sites then I'm
afraid they are going to find some
independent tanker fleet in eastern
Canada.
"I was delighted when Sparling's
called me about the opportunity to
purchase SLT," said Gerald
Stephens, owner and operator of
Great Western Resources, Etobi-
coke. "We will work with the
employees to build on the business
and reputation of SLT. They are
well-trained, experienced people
who are part of the value-added
package."
The purchase will not result in
the loss of any jobs as Great West-
ern will hire the SLT employees,
12 in total. Great Western has also
made arrangements to park the
fleet, on an interim basis, in one of
Sparling's sheds.
Eventually Stephens said he
plans on having a stand-alone facil-
ity in the area, with enough fleet to
keep the business humming.
Sparling believes the sale works
well for staff and their jobs remain
close to home.
Belgrave Co-op
Bob Foxton Fuels
Boyd's Elevators
Bruce Tile
Brussels Agri Services
Brussels Agromart
Brussels Livestock
Dauphin Feed & Supply
Fritz Concrete
Huron Feeding Systems
Huron Tractor
John Ernewein Ltd.
very tough negotiations," he
warned.
But Clinton Reeve Carol
Mitchell suggested Morris and
Exeter could work with municipali-
ties, the way municipalities using
the Central Huron site at
Holmesville have, to finance
improvements and leave the county
out of the issue.
Jack Coleman, reeve of Stanley,
reminded council that at public
workshops held earlier this year the
message was loud and clear that the
county should get out of waste
management.
Davidson said the county is get-
ting out of waste management once
the masterplan is finished in the
next few weeks, but those meetings
had also said the county should co-
ordinate waste management among
the municipalities. The county is
trying to set up a system to allow
other municipalities to use the Mor-
ris and Exeter sites once their own
landfills are full, he said.
Warden Bill Clifford suggested
the money used to improve the
Morris and Exeter sites could be
treated as an advance to be paid
back from tipping fees at a later
time.
"I don't care if the money is
loaned to us or given but there will
be money up front before the site is
used," said Elliott. The issue of tak-
ing waste from other municipalities
has never been put before the Mor-
ris ratepayers, he said and they
won't pay for upgrading the site for
the use of others. "If we're going to
have to charge for the municipali-
ties to come in here, it is going to
be a pretty high fee," he warned.
Bill Carnochan, reeve of Tucker-
smith, said management of the
Central Huron site has been
improved and could last 34 years,
meaning the municipalities using it
would never need the Morris or
Exeter sites and it was unfair for
them to have to pay the money.
However, Reeve Bruce Machan
of Wingham said, "I find it's inter-
esting that the people who are com-
plaining are the people who have
the longest life left in their dump."
The county has shared costs in the
past when not everyone benefited
equally, he said, citing the case of
urbanites who don't use county
roads as much as rural residents.
Bill Weber, reeve of Stephen,
suggested more clear budget fig-
ures were needed and that perhaps
the $250,000 was unnecessarily
high and the three-year-term too
long.
Eventually councillors voted to
send the report to the Administra-
tion, Finance and Personnel com-
mittee to study the financial
implications.
Engineer warns
county may get
more highways
Changes occur at Sparling's
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