CENTRE WELLINGTON — The impact of changes to the County of Wellington's waste fees and charges is already being seen in some township parks.
According to managing director of community services Pat Newson at a Centre Wellington council meeting Monday evening, parks staff have noticed some "increased garbage pickup" has been required in public garbage dispensers in both downtown areas, specifically Elora, since the County of Wellington increased minimum waste fees.
The County of Wellington implemented a new $10 minimum user fee at each of its six waste facility sites in January to preserve county waste facility capacity and encourage residents to use the existing curbside collection program.
"With the change in some of the use of the county waste disposal, we did see a reaction in January and February related to additional household garbage being added to our park's garbage cans," said Newson at the meeting.
As a result, parks manager Lucas Rogerson said the township's parks coordinator is having trouble keeping up with his obligations given the recent quantity of snow and garbage and they've brought in some other staff to help assist with garbage in downtown Elora.
A new temporary, full-time winter seasonal labourer position is currently suggested within the proposed Winter Activities Risk Management Program to help address this need as the parks department only has one winter staffer who provides park garbage collection and snow removal for select township facilities.
The position is anticipated to cost $12,000 in 2025 and $29,000 in 2026.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.