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Neighbourhoods to petition city for roll-out garbage bins

Nov 21, 2017 | 4:19 AM

A solution to the communal alleyway garbage bins plaguing downtown parts of the city appears to have been found.

At a mid-October council meeting, countless letters and photos of overflowing, burning or knocked over bins centred heavily in the Midtown neighbourhood were presented to council and branded as a “real problem” on the streets.

The letters read how residents have reached out countless times requesting help or rollout bins, but to little or no avail.

But after various councillors, particularly Evert Botha, expressed a strong will to remedy the situation, a report outlining the replacement and implementation of the individual wheel out bins made its way forward to council Monday night.

“This is not an everything for Midtown issue… I think we do have those corridors that we have seen the same issues time and time again, and I would like to see that we get those done,” Botha said.

The report recommended the city replace the 300-gallon collection bins to 95-gallon garbage bins, and 65-gallon recycling bins on a request and need basis. A five-year citywide implementation would run just over $44,000 per year.

As of now, 37 garbage and recycle rollout bins have been delivered to Midtown residents.

A phased-in approached is preferred with priority given to the critical neighbourhoods, as many councillors previously expressed how budgeting upwards of $230,000 in one pass could be difficult.

Though thankful administration “jumped out quickly” in front of the issue, Coun. Ted Zurakowski held anxieties over the definition of “request and need basis.”

“I don’t want to deal with this on a block by block disaster as the months roll on,” he said. “In my view, I think we need to have a clearer policy on what happens.”

Administration said the bins would be put in place as long as very little pushback is heard after letters go out to homes on the blocks where residents approach the city and ask for change. Other criteria, such as home elevation level and backlane road grade, also have to be met.

Regardless, Zurakowski proposed a petition based approach for the bins, similar to that of the current asphalt program.

“It should be initiated by the residents because if the city gets too excited and changes to many, too fast, too soon, we are going to be dealing with a backlash,” he explained.

Seconding this idea was Coun. Terra Lennox-Zepp, who said some citizens have reached out to her and indicated they prefer the community bins over individual rollouts.

Council unanimously passed the need for a block wide petition garnering majority support before community bins are replaced.

 

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr