There will be a municipal spring cleanup, but the details are still being ironed out.
The annual pickup is slated to run from Monday, June 3 to Thursday, June 13.
Tonight, Timmins council was set to vote on awarding the contract to Waste Management of Canada. The tender was not approved.
“There has been some slight change in the program now. We just received confirmation earlier today that confirms that Waste Management will not be able to honour the timelines of the spring cleanup program,” said Scott Tam, manager of environmental services and public utilities, at the meeting.
He said the company proposed delaying the pickup until July.
“Number one, we’re not waiting until July, we can’t. Number two, we’ve got to compromise this year and that means we’ve got to come up with a way to get this done internally,” said Mayor George Pirie, summarizing the situation.
“We may have to defer the street sweeping, whatever it is, but we’ve got to get this done internally and we’ve got to get this done within the timeframe that our residents have come to expect.”
Council has directed staff to come up with a plan within 48 hours to make sure the service occurs.
"That will undoubtedly include things like no tipping fees during that period at the landfill, but also that staff look to postpone projects and assign city resources otherwise in order to tackle the curbside refuse. We will encourage people, though, to use the free tipping fees in order to lighten the load,” said CAO Dave Landers.
Within the next couple of days, he said there will be clear communication on how the city is handling the cleanup next week.
In anticipation of the curbside cleanup, many residents throughout the community have started putting yard waste and items for collection out near the curbs.
The possibility of not having the curbside cleanup raised concerns for several councillors.
There were is worry that items will end up being dumped in the bush.
Coun. Noella Rinaldo also noted that in Schumacher there are a lot of apartments, and some people don't have access to a vehicle to bring the old furniture or mattresses put out to the landfill.
“I hate to not see anything happen and I’m curious to see how we can think outside of the box and maybe it’s a matter of even looking at movers,” she said.
During the cleanup when landfill fees are waived, Tam said they city has been receiving 600 to 700 tonnes of items at the landfill. About 200 tonnes is picked up curbside.
“Based on some of the historical stats, we’ve had a lot more participation through the direct dumping at Deloro over the curbside. Curbside has been turning down,” said Tam.
At one point, the program was done in house.
"Due to the demands of municipal needs, it interfered with a lot of activities - street sweeping and a lot of other spring activities, so that’s why the direction was made at the time to contract out this program,” he said.
Waste Management is the only bid that was received this year.
“Something we’ve been hearing a lot over the last few years is a lot of companies don’t want to participate because it is hard on their vehicles, it does do a lot of damage,” said Tam.
