By KRYSTA CARROLL
Advertiser
With growth in a community, comes change.
Once such change will be in the garbage collection schedule for Grand Falls-Windsor.
“In areas where we have had residential growth, the amount of garbage being collected on certain days has grown because the streets have grown, streets off of streets have been added, so we have to balance the workload,” said Councillor Darren Finn, chair of the Public Works and Planning committee. “So we are going to do some adjustments to balance out the workload.”
But fear not residents, it won’t happen immediately.
“People get used to the schedule,” Coun. Finn said. “In my case, garbage has been collected on Wednesday on the street (I’ve been) living on for the past nine years, so I’m used to Wednesday.”
The adjustments will be made in time, so the current schedule will remain for now, he said, adding there will be an implementation period.
“When we do those adjustments, we’ll notify the streets, do the appropriate postings, when that is done, we’ll make the community aware of what those changes are,” Coun. Finn said. “We’re functioning fine to a degree now so it’s not something urgent, but we do know that the workloads are not balanced on each day, and workloads need to be balanced on each day.”
And what will be welcome news to many, work has begun on the new site for a Saturday Drop Off.
“The Saturday Drop Off will start again, hopefully by early September,” Coun. Finn said.
The new site will be located off Arterial Road off Main Street West, he said.
“That extension will go all the way over to Park Street in the next two years,” he said. “In particular, when the arterial is finished, it’s going to be an ideal location for the community.
“And it’s going to be built to accommodate the huge number of vehicles that we’ve been getting each Saturday. We have to be able to move 600-800 vehicles for that day so it has been designed so that we can move the vehicles through pretty fast.”
Coun. Finn said council has gotten significant feedback on this Saturday Drop Off, and residents are happy it will soon be up and running once again.
“The old landfill was in New Bay, the new one is in Norris Arm, and people just don’t want to drive that far,” Coun. Finn said. “And not everybody has a truck. So people are looking forward to being able to clean their homes out on a regular basis and not have to wait for the spring clean up, which does leave a lot of clutter in the homes.”
With the service, obviously, there comes a cost, Coun. Finn said, however, they have been able to refine the budget down to about $250,000.
“We are using our own Town forces, with some contracting, sub-contracting,” Coun. Finn said. “So we’re going to build this for less than we initially planned, which is good.”
