My friends and I have discovered there is a possibility the compost behind the Recreation Complex may be closed by city council. Apparently, the city’s reasoning is that it costs too much to run. Nearly everyone in the city uses that facility regularly to dispose of branches, leaves, and garden waste, so why shouldn’t it cost a bit of the city’s budget?
In contrast to everything else the city is involved in, this yard compost is important as everyone uses it. It’s a clear vision of recycling, and it’s good value for money. We’ve been told by one city councillor that public works has to assign one worker to the yard compost area regularly – and that apparently is a problem.
Why, we ask? Given that it’s a highly used city service, shouldn’t the cost of a single city worker for this function be a necessary aspect of city service just as it is for park maintenance and street cleaning?
Apparently, the city is quite upset at the number of residents from outside Castlegar who dump lawn clippings and yard waste in our compost facility? I suspect that is true, but those numbers are likely not as large as the city indicates.
Anyway, why not find a solution rather than shut down the compost? We have heard the city is committed instead to yard waste/organic composting at the street level. Supposedly, we will have two containers we can use for the same kind of waste we are now dropping at the yard compost site. However, it likely will not be enough to deal with the material needed to be moved, particularly in the fall and spring. Thus, city taxpayers will add to their costs as they haul their extra vegetative compost to the landfill – not only landfill costs but gasoline costs. Beyond that, we will have many non-environmental types dumping their waste on back trails and open spots as happened in the past.
Seeing that we taxpayers are generally happy with the facility, it would be decent of council to have a public forum on this matter ahead of the decision. We are anxious to save the best enterprise the city has initiated in the past several years.
Gordon Turner, Castlegar, B.C.
RELATED: Castlegar residents to get smaller carts for garbage, current carts to be repurposed for organics
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