Come July 1, we will be seeing a new face on garbage collection.
In place of the present contractor (Alpine Group), Christina Lake Garbage and Recycling, who submitted a request for proposal and were the successful applicant, will be taking care of pick-ups throughout the city and Area D, and as previously serviced, Area C.
There seems to be some misconception out there as to what this means. For now the service will remain status quo – for example, in Area D, if you contracted with Alpine for garbage removal, this same service will be available through CL Garbage and Recycle.
Blue bag (recycling garbage) will continue to be collected from each household as it was in the past; these collections are made every other week.
Simply place your recyclables in a blue recycle bag and put it out at your curb for pickup. With the exception of a small part of the North Fork, this service is available to every household in Area D at no additional charge, as a fee for this is included in taxation.
Items which are allowable in blue bags include all paper (including newspapers), catalogues, magazines, tin cans, mixed rigid plastic containers such as milk containers, as well as film plastics.
We will be conducting community information sessions in the coming months regarding the planned organics waste collections.
What this will look like and how it will be implemented remains to be determined.
Presently, it may be a pilot project in a specific area and we are to determine this at an upcoming Environmental Services Committee meeting.
It is hoped that as many citizens will attend the information sessions as possible and offer feedback to help determine if this will be an all-inclusive so that as many citizens as possible will attend the information sessions and offer feedback to help determine if this will be an all-inclusive or a user-pay service.
Watch for newspaper and mail-out notices regarding the dates for these sessions.
Spring is slowly coming and we should consider uncovering some of the unsightly and unused items we tend to collect in our yards over the years.
We do not have an unsightly premises bylaw in Area D, as they are hard to enforce, so it is hoped that all citizens will take pride in their community and clean up their properties.
What better way to impress our visitors then to have tidy, well-kept properties instead of piles of unsightly trash?
There is, however, a bylaw regarding abandoned cars.
Section 303(5): “Except where specifically permitted within a zone, no parcel may be used for the wrecking, salvage or storage of derelict vehicles or as a junk yard.”
If any vehicle is on a property for a period of one year and is unlicensed, it is subject to this bylaw. Once the regional district has been made aware of any vehicles that have been abandoned on a property for a period of one year (unlicensed) they will then notify the property owners that these vehicles must be removed and again, this applies to vehicles only.
Think about doing a neighbourhood clean-up one property at a time. Let our visitors and tourists see that we take pride in this beautiful valley.
– Irene Perepolkin is the Area D director for the Regional District of the Kootenay Boundary