It's only garbage, Spring Cleanup in the Crowsnest Pass

Well here, we go again the old issue of Spring Cleanup.

This annual ritual (some years bi annual) where we take our municipal workforce away from jobs that they should be doing and turn them into garbage men (nothing derogatory towards garbage men) for anywhere from two to six months.

Over the last seven years this absolute waste of time as cost the taxpayers anywhere from $100,000 to $400,000 per year in total somewhere around $2 million.

Wow, we could have put in place three new graders, three new loaders and probably a couple of brand new trucks without incurring one dollar of debt in that timeframe.

So new council made up of mostly people that pledged to go after the inefficiencies within the municipality to keep the cost of taxes down takes another look at this issue.

Lo and behold, they have come up with a new plan they are going to remain being one of the few communities in the province that still does this silliness but they are going to do it differently.

We the taxpayers are going to be supplied with a list of items that are eligible to be removed by our public works employees, (temporary garbage men). For two weeks, the taxpayers will have the opportunity to call the municipality to notify them of the need to have their garbage picked up.
Then the municipal employees will come around and pick them up. The dollars allowed in the budget for this Myron Thompson stated $10,000 just for labour.
My response to that is “dream on” at our labour rates that works out to a little under 300 hours of labour over a one month period that “two” employees assigned to this.

Think about a few things:

How hard is it going to be to call the municipal office those two weeks?
We have over 3200 residences in the Crowsnest Pass imagine if only half of them call for a pick up, the logistic nightmare of coordinating that exercise?.

If house number one and four on a block calls to schedule a pick up, number three sees his neighbors putting out material so he just goes ahead and puts his out will the municipal employees just drive by because he did not schedule?

Councilor Saindon stated I believe correctly that this cleanup will cost just as much as the old one. He as also stated on his blog that he is clearly opposed to this, I hope he can convince his colleagues, it is time for the Crowsnest Pass to recognize as so many other communities have this is not a luxury we can afford.

Its time to end the debate on Spring Cleanup.

NOTE: Surprising results on my poll regarding the new cleanup only 2 voters (5%) felt the new idea was good, 11 voters (30%) felt the municipality should stick with the old cleanup. Lastly 23 voters (63%) felt that the municipality doing cleanups should just end.

Results of latest polls, Recycling and Garbage limits in the Crowsnest Pass

Very Interesting results on my latest polls.

Firstly I asked:

Should the Crowsnest Pass change its 5 bag limit on garbage?

With the options of:
No its fine 10 votes
No limit at all 2 votes
Yes to 4 bags 0 votes
Yes to 3 bags 7 votes
Yes to 2 bags 13 votes

Clearly the message I received from this poll was that a strong majority almost two thirds feel that there should be a significant reduction (notice nobody voted for 4 bags) to either 3 or 2 bags from the present five bag limit.

Second I asked:

Crowsnest Pass presently spends $90,000 per year on recycling is that adequate?

The options were:
Yes 10 votes
No we should spend less 4 votes
No we should spend more 6 votes
Get rid of it all together 2 votes

The strong majority on this poll clearly tells me that the voters have no interest in spending more money on recycling.
When you combine the results from the two polls it says in my opinion if we can be smarter with our garbage and increase the amount of recycling we do by throwing less away, residents would be interested as long has it does not increase the cost.

Garbage and Recycling in the Crowsnest Pass

In the last week I have received a number of emails/calls regarding the bag limit on garbage in the Crowsnest Pass, and the issue of recycling. One person felt there should me no bag limit that there was no correlation between bag limits and recycling. Another person felt that recycling was a complete waste of taxpayers money. (Presently it costs the taxpayers $90,000 a year).
Then a couple more people felt that our bag limit was way too high and it should be lower.
Anyway I have posted a poll regarding the bag limit and would love to hear any feedback on this issue.

Further Information

Pincher Creek 2 bag limit
Sparwood 2 bag limit
Elkford uses clear bins and will not take paper, milk jugs or any other recyclables.

Recycling rate in the Elk Valley approx 20%
Recycling rate in the Crowsnest Pass approx 4%