OLIVER PAIPOONGE – A curbside garbage collection system would make life more pleasant in Oliver Paipoonge, a service that would come with a hefty price tag, municipal officials say.
Mayor Lucy Kloosterhuis said previous councils have looked at starting a curbside program, but she said long travel times between the municipality's villages would make the cost untenable for taxpayers.
Without a curbside pickup system, taxpayers haul household garbage to either of Oliver Paipoonge's two landfill sites located on Spence Road and Barrie Drive.
Some Murillo residents feel garbage dumped at the Spence Road site in the municipality's north end could be managed in a more orderly manner.
Resident Ken Dowhaniuk said users have to drive through a trashy debris field before they can dump their loads.
"I have a truck, so I can get through OK, but a lot of people have small cars," Dowhaniuk said.
Dowhaniuk said in his view, the Spence Road facility had previously been kept neater than its current state.
Kloosterhuis said municipal crews use a machine to keep trash in order at the end of the days that the municipality's two landfills are open to residents.
Kloosterhuis, who accesses the Barrie Drive site by car, admits the landfills can become muddy following a rainstorm.
But she said going to the dump is part of rural life, and the sites are never going to appear as pretty as a garden.
"I think it's neat and tidy — for a landfill site," she said. "They have places for wood and recycling."
She added: "It is a dump after all. There's not much you can do about that."
The Chronicle-Journal/Local Journalism Initiative
