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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1993-07-14, Page 2Page 2 Times -Advocate, July 14;199:1 i THE nLEWL ttese Compromises sought on business garbage costs Conunuc d troin front page Joe Darling, of Darling's Food Market, insisted the town made a huge miscalculation on its tipping fees. He said the 40 cubic yard dumpster his store uses cost $30 to dump at the landfill in 1992. That in- creased to $60 in January, but under the new waste management program, at $12 a cubic yard, the cost is now $480. "You've now proposing $480 to take that to the dump. That blows my mind...you must have calculat- ed wrong," said Darling, staling extra garbage collec- tion costs can't be passed onto the consumer in an al- ready tight and competitive retail market. "Businesses really can't pay for garbage, because we can't collect it back from anyone," he said. "May- be garbage isn't a user -pay system that works." And with the town now refusing cardboard frdm the landfill, Darling says he is having to use that dumpster strictly for cardboard and have it shipped away by a private contractor. In all, he said his gar- bage collection costs have risen $10,000 in one-year. "I think you've really missed the boat when you've worried about residences and- not commercial peo- ple," said Darling. Terry Schwartzentruber from Canadian Tire said his store has purchased a baler tobatm9sact cardboard for recycling, and has rrtanagedcsoiend a contractor willing to pay 525 a tonne for it. 'However, he said the onus should be on the town to provide such a bal- ing service for.all businesses. Bob Russell of Russell Electric said he agreed with - Dinney that the garbage his store handles really comes from the customer. He said new appliances come packed with wood, boxes and styrofoam the customer doesn't want. The customer also wants the store to take their old appliance away, and Russell said he has a.hsrd time passing the $10 appliance dis- posal fee along. Tom Seip, of Seip's Valu Mart said he wondered if the mie aim of the program was landfill waste diver - aim, "or are we trying to get rich off the garbage that's going there." Dinney predicted whit: some companies might be paying $25 for a load of cardboard now, once the supply increases, prices will drop and retailers will eventually end up paying to have it hauled away for recycling. "You're saying 'it's not our problem, we wash our hands of if and you can't do -that to the business people of this town," said Dinney. Dave Hohmann of Holtzmann's IGA said the new program forced him to sign a $6,500 yearly contract with a private contractor, only to learn the town may have been able to meet his needs. Even so, he ac- knowledged his store should have been doing more to sort and divert garbage. "I was disappointed in the way [the waste program] was banded, but I realize w had to do some- thing...we —were just riding -a gravy train," said Holtz - mann. At this paint,ran*yor Mame Shaw interrupted the presentation to palm out the town had been trying to get garbage reduced last summer, but met with few results. He said the qnly thing that has made people take notice of the need to reduce is the user -pay fee. Other municipalities are in the same boat, he said. Seaforth does not collect garbage from businesses a% all, and all residents of Stanley Township have to de- liver their own garbage to the Holinesville site and pay the fees there. "It's going to cost us a million dollars to do some- thing with ourlandfillsite. We don't have the mon- ey- The taxpayers can't take another tilt...we have to do sroniethiog," insisted Shaw. Shaw said 'the works department was already re- porting reduced garbage loads as of the first day of inc residential user pay plebe "Did That come out of ifileelit4M8.111110111111ingk last fail? No bloody way. It-aiite stout Ittletanse people thought they were going to have to pay two bucks to put out their garbage," he said. Shaw denied the high upping fees are a means of making money. He said they are an incentive to recycle more, and a way to keep out-of-town gar- bage arriving in Exeter because of cheaper Up- ping fees. "You want .garbage out of' Exeter? That's what you'll do. Close the businesses, people will shop elsewhere," accused Darling. Tom Hata' of Thomas H. Mens Clothing agreed' with councillor Ben Hoogenboom that 90 percent of his store's garbage can be recycled, only if it were possible to get it collected'. He said Bluewater Recy- cling has suggested he ask his seppliers if they can take the packaging back. "I don't think they have a blue box program in Thailand," said Hartai, noting many retail items are imported. Town administrator Rick Hundey agreed there probably has to be a better balance of waste disposal fees between the commercial sector and the residenc- es. "We think the balance point is off, it needs to be ad- justed," conceded Hundey. The consensus of those present was, the town should be providing more garbage diversion services to the retailers, such as collecting all cardboard for re- cycling, not just the cardboard from the smaller busi- nesses as is being done now. Shaw said he liked a suggestion from works super- intendent Glenn Kells that there be a rebate on up- ping fees at the dump - a rebate only valid for Exeter businesses. Gary MacLean, of MaeLeans Home Hardware, argued the town will have to seek a short-term solu- tions to the problem, and act quickly before business- es close their doors due to escalating costs. "1•don't think you're going to find along -tern solu- tion, because as Jon [Dinneyl says, we're pioneering this thing, and nobody knows what that [future) is go- ing to bc," said MacLean. After the business representatives left, Shaw corn- mented on how -much more difficult the waste man- agement system is for the retail sector than anticipat- ed. "This is far mope complicated than I thought it was going to be," said Shaw. "I heteto sayl told you so.." said Hoogenboom. At a meeting of council's executive committee Monday evening, several ideas were appfoved to present to council next Monday. With the input of four retailers a suggestion was made to approach the town Business Improvement Area to ask them to con- sider purchasing a cardboard baler for retail use; to continue the town's collection of cardboard from businesses for baling and recycling; and to review the program,in six months. The other solution which met with approval was the establishment of a depot for bulk recyclables from businesses, much along the lines of the ill-fated recycling depot of a few years ago. However, as the retailers agreed, there is now a financial incentive to remove plastics, paper, glass and metals from gar- bage. A consensus on the upping fee rebate idea could not be reached, but the committee promised to review the commercial waste program at future meetings as more information arrives. Grand Bend businesses need a stronger Chamber survey says Continued -treat front page that perhaps the village should in- vestigate just how much sales tax goes from the local businesses -to ' thapeomiticiaLgovesnment. He said Grand Bend is treated like a community of 700 although it bas to take care of thousands who flock to the village every summer. Guillet indicated perhaps thc province was not allocating enough money to Grand Bend and maybe commit should investigate this. "Queen's' Park is not giving out more money, it's giving out less," said Ivey. Some Grand Bend merchants has formed what they call a tax co- alition and although Forbes and Guillet would not say if .they were representing that group. they did say they were overtaxed. "The number one thing in this town eating us up is taxes. We don't have the income here," said Forbes. Forbes also said that it's time someone, "takes the bull by the horns and say no," to taxes. Ivey responded by saying Forbes should nm in the next election. Pickup truck fire cause still unknown EXETER - "clic Exeter OPP say the cause of an early Sunday morn- ing pickup truck firms on King Street in Heasall is still under investiga- tion. The Hensall Fire Department tended to the blaze which saw ex- tensive damage to the truck, but po- lice say there is still no exact deter- mination of what caused the fie. The OPP investigated a single car Accident last Tuesday in which a ;ear driven by Lorie Lightfoot of -Huron Park on Highway 83 struale a deer which crossed the highway near Usborne Concession 14-15. The OPP have just opened an Ex- tended ServicesOffice in Huron Park. A community police officer, emeel.le Leo Weaverink will be ;tMiMr►lirom - time to time and will •,welcoine any contact from individ- uals concerned about local polic- • ing. Correction The Tunes -Advocate apologizes for the error in the July 7 issue. The woman featured at the Grand Bend Psychic Fair was Dot Anne Lecourtoik. but was Gloria John- ston. We apologize for any incon- venience this may have caused. Stocks may run out Summer's heat not wilting air conditioner sales in focal steres EXETER - If you have found the past weeks heat par- ticularly unbearable you're not alone. This weeks tem- peratures sent many locals to the nearest air conditioner salesperson for some relief from the heat.. Bob Russell -of -Russell Electric sold five 10,000 BTU air conditioners on the weekend, and four last week. "The air conditioner business is tricky, if the weather isn't nic .: lou get stuck with them." According to Rus- sell this year is the best he's done with the air condition- ers in a few -years. Somemodels he's been sol{ g'tifte fnmilM) years ago as they'didti'tsell from the �jiiea't' `ifir' fore. .However Russell is down to three left, and he's confident that they'll be sold before the summer is over. Canadian Tire salesman Terry Schwartzentruber had similar feelings. "This is the best we've done in two or .three years." Terry says that because it's been so cold during the past few summers the manufacturers have cut down on their production, so they may not have suffi- clean stock fortis summer. Schwartzeniruber encour- ages, everyone to pick one up early if .they would like one lfid llteti;yt,',.f,�e�w months. °enaction'fire:has sold "t,000' '1TU au conditioners.; but.according to SchwartaetmUber,'"the bigger they are the better." Development on increase in the village of Lucan Over the part week Terry Schwertzentruber, of Canadian Tire, has sold many . of these air conditioners. Due oto the high temperatures of the past week he has had to order more to keep up with the demand as people try to beat the heat. ,Two warden candidates GODERICH - For the fourth time in five years, McKillop Town- ship reeve Marie Hicknell will run as a candidate for the warden of Huron C ounty Thursday g, following completion of i council's July ses- sion, Hicknell announced she had the full support of her municipal council and will be seeking the top county political position in the Dee ()ember election. Hicknell, who was defeated in 1992, 1991 and 1990 did not run against current warden Tom Tomes, who was acclaimed in the last election. Stanley Township reeve Howard Armstrong announced his candida- cy on Thursday and said he would be contacting fellow county coun- cillors in the summer looking for their support. New Exeter Official Plan EXETER The Town of Exeter has a new draft Official Plan. The planning document nets out desig- nated land uses within town boun- daries and is a revision of the Iasi plan made in 1986. . ' Town administrator Rick Hundey said there are few changes Of nmior concern to town residents, which was probably why there was little interest in the recent public -meet- ing. But he said the new plan (las done away with the old "cumber- some" highway commercial/ industrial zoning, allowing instead a wider ridge of land uses in the town's industrial zones. The high- way conutiercial zone will also al- low for as i nihil! Hundey said the main goals of the new plan were to improve the wording of the old document and to hopefully avoid taking new devel- opment proposals to the provincial government for zoning changes. Counci''or Bob Spears said he was pleased with the - new draft plan, which was adopted by, bylaw at last Monday's council meeting. He asked a letter of appreciation be sent to the planning advisory com- mittee members for their work on the new plan. "i think it's a good document, and it reads a lot nicer than the ol1 one," said °Spears, who added that the town staff also contributed a great deal to the draft. of mal estate developments are beginning to get underway or in the planning stages in the village of Lucan. This activity is being triggered by the recently installed Lake Huron water system and a soon to be com- pleted sewer system expansion. A freeze which had been on building projects for a number of years be- cause of the shortage of water bas been lifted. Representatives of RMR Con- struction attended a recent council meeting to seek approval for a de- vclopmatt plan on Wellington and Clarence streets. Rick Gwalchmai and Mike An- derson said their group is prepared to start digging by late July for con- struction of four semi-detached housing units on Wellington street. Gwakhmai said they would like to construct four units fronting onto Wellington street this year. Another six liras would be consuucied next year with four of the six fronting onto Clarence street which at the present time is unopened. Reeve Toni McLaughlin on inc question of Clarence street said, "Council will fust bavc to decide whether or not we wish to open Clarence street and to what stan- dard it should be\constructed''. He added, "Once we have some cost estimates to look at we will sit down with you to negotiate a settle- ment". Clerk Ron Reymer said the lot grading plan has already been ap- proved by council. Council authorized Reymer to obtain some very preliminary cost estimates. from Huron Middlesex Engineering on opening Clarence street. Anderson told council, "We need ,water and sewers on Clarence street and are only asking for a road to drive on". In a reply from Huron Middlesex Engineering, I)on Pletch said, "In order to minimize the village's ex- penditures, no'`preliminary design work has been \completed for the proposed Ciarente street Constnle- lion" • rnn instar_" sed esestirna► _ snmendedLpf o - ed unit prices, a ballpark price per lineal foot for road construction costs on Clarence street, between Francis and Wellington is about 5200 to 5250 per lineal foot, -with inc variance reflecting the applica- ble services required. Intersection trreatment will also increase thc constniclion costs". Pletch conclud " In addition to the village dctenn ting the scope of servicing required. and subsequent estimated constryction costs, con- sideration may ,be given to cost sharing on Clarence, Wellington and Richmond streets". The second recent development is proposed by W.H. Loyens Inc. It will be a 28 unit apartment building and a four-plex on Gibson Cres- cent. The village's planning committee posed project on oily 5 and the fol- lowing evening, Frank Loyens pre- sented his site plan to council. A number of points have still to be ratified, but council has given tentative approval providing all points can be straightened out, ready for the site plan agreement stage. The Loyens firm has also present- ed a very preliminary subdivison draft plan for a 46 lot subdivison for single family dwellings in the vicinity of Beech and Gibson. Works superintendent Doug Johnston has reported to council .that most of the work on recon- struction of Duchess Avenue has been completed for this year. The street's water main has been enlarged and the sewer system ex- tended to Concession 4. Court hears two castes involving suspended licenses EXETER - In court last Tuesday Justice of the Peace Karen Stur- dy heard two cases of driving while under li- cence suspension. In the fust case the court heard that on April 23 a vehicle driven by Robert Des,jardine, of Ex- eter, was pulled over for speeding Police found the li- cence had been suspended since February 11 because of unpaid tines. A charge of guilt was entered and Dcjjardine was fined $505 with 30 days to pay. - 7'he second case involved Phillip Wie of Kitchener, who was. pulled over fpr failure to lower high beam lights on -May 7. The court heard that Wieb could not show police a valid licence but claimed to have one from British Columbia. Police found Wieb had an Ontario license which had been sus- pended since last September. % A guilty plea was entered and Wieb was find S 1,005 with 30 days to pay.