Upon recently learning that Sundre's recycling centre is heavily used by local and nearby businesses as well as rural residents, local officials invited members of Mountain View County council to discuss potential solutions.
Sundre councillor Verna McFadden, who sits on the Mountain View Regional Waste Management Commission, informed her colleagues during council's regular Jan. 30 meeting that the municipality is not supposed to handle commercial cardboard recycling, which actually has been the case.
"For taxpayers to pay for commercial use (of the recycling centre) is a question as to whether that's reasonable," Mayor Terry Leslie told the Round Up last week.
Historically as well as generally speaking, he said commercial enterprises tend to produce much larger volumes of recyclable material than residents. Businesses also typically deal with their own recycling at their expense, he said.
"That's something we're going to have to monitor," he said, adding the starting point will be to raise awareness to educate people and businesses on the expected use of the facility.
Additionally, local officials had heard from the municipality's operations manager Jim Hall during a previous workshop on Jan. 23 that county residents also use the facility heavily.
"We like the fact that people are recycling and reducing the amount of waste they send to the landfill," said Leslie.
But the catch is finding an agreeable way to provide the service affordably for those who are using it. That means getting administrative staff as well as members of both councils together to discuss revenue sharing or other potential alternatives that are more fair and equitable to both town and county ratepayers, he said.
To that end, Sundre officials met with a couple of their Mountain View County counterparts during a special meeting held in town on Tuesday, Jan. 31, when Reeve Bruce Beattie and Coun. Angela Aalbers attended to begin tossing ideas around.
Mountain View County works with some of its neighbouring municipalities, the mayor said, adding the county already has agreements with places such as Carstairs and Cremona.
"To be fair, we haven't asked for a contribution in dollars and cents and so this was just our opportunity to start that discussion."
Following the special meeting, Leslie said elected officials decided to direct their respective administrative staff to draft proposals that will be brought back to the councils for further deliberation.
The end goal is "to work together to make it a more effective recycling centre for all of our residents," he said.
