Waste management still a concern for Town Council

By Megan Roth
Town Councillors have been attending meetings with other rural communities and municipalities in the Southwest to discuss waste management.
During the Feb. 23 Town Council meeting, Mayor Barry Rudd brought information back to Council regarding the waste management meeting he attended in Burstall on Feb. 11.
The meeting was to discuss how the regional landfill in Shaunavon came to be and how much it cost.
The initial cost for the landfill was $1.47 million after hiring a committee, engineer and contractors.
However, Mayor Rudd explained the building is not finished and, just recently, they finished two more buildings for the landfill.
The fee for using the landfill has also increased from $25 a month up to almost $50 a month.
The rural municipalities are worried about what hauling all that garbage will do to their roads over time.
While at the meeting in Burstall the communities also brought up the idea of using an incinerator.
After a trip to Germany, a mayor of a neighbouring town discussed the problems they faced before switching over to an incinerator.
The old garbage had begun to pollute their water as the sewage began to seep through the liners protecting the earth below the garbage pit.
However, there is no incinerator in the area right now and before one can be used it must be tested by the government to make sure it passes the emissions test.
The cost for the emissions test is $20,000. An additional $50,000 would also be required to bring an incinerator up from the U.S.
The question Mayor Barry posed to Council is which one do they want to look into perusing.
A few councilors expressed their interest in perusing the incinerator route, worried about the possibility of the waste in the landfill leaking through the liners and contaminating the earth and water. Others wished for more information, mostly about costs, before making a decision.
Mayor Rudd believes the use of the incinerator will be municipally-based and not a regional facility. This way the rural municipalities do not have to worry about what the hauling will do to their roads.
Mayor Rudd will be attending another meeting at the end of March in Fox Valley about this issue, one that will focus on potential cost of using an incinerator.
Right now there has been no choice made by Town Council, or any other council, on what to do other than gather more information.
The parks and recreation committee are looking at fixing the pool as well as the making a few updates to the arena.
The committee is looking at updating the arena to include meeting areas by building a six foot wall to separate the viewing area from the ‘meeting area.’ The meeting area will then be divided into stalls to accommodate the different organizations.
The committee is also looking into retrofitting the pool to make the repairs.
The price of renting the Armoury also came into question.
Currently the use of the kitchen is not included in the cost of the rental. The committee would like to increase the cost of rental to reflect the use of the kitchen to $225 per day and $450 per weekend.
If the use of the kitchen is not be used then the cost would remain the same.
No decision was made to the committee’s requests and was tabled until the next meeting for further discussion.
The parks committee also received a $10,000 grant from the Heart and Stroke foundation. With the grant comes three automated external defibrillators (AED), the housing for each machine, three CPR kits, and training for 50 people, workers and community members, on how to use the AED.
Currently they are trying to find the ‘most strategic’ place to put them. One place they are thinking is somewhere downtown, like Town Hall, because of all the festivals they have on Main street.
The Town of Maple Creek currently has two AED machines, one is located at the arena and the other is at the pool.
Mayor Rudd disclosed Swift Current has not yet implemented their Safe Places Initiative, and neither has Maple Creek. He does believe eventually, in the near future, having criminal record check will be mandatory for all volunteers.
In minor sports, all coaches have to have a completed criminal record check or they will not be allowed to coach.
Mayor Rudd and Town Administrator have finally signed a land transfer for the old Cypress Lodge. The expected date of possession is March 1.

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