Blanket insurance for festivals in South Dundas

At the June 26th South Dundas council meeting, after months of pushing for a local electronic waste disposal option, councillor Archie Mellan was happy to hear that a solution was finally within reach.

Hugh Garlough, manager of public works, presented council with a proposal from RDLong Computers Limited for the collection of electronic waste. 

The company has offered to provide covered storage containers at each of the landfill sites. In addition, the company will be responsible for collecting the items and for any associated costs.

RDLong Computers Limited was first approached by Pauline Pratt of the House of Lazarus as the company currently collects and processes all the electronic waste brought to the charity’s location in Mountain. 

The charity receives money from the company based on the weight of materials collected. Under RDLong’s proposal to the township, the House of Lazarus will receive the same compensation for anything collected at the South Dundas landfill sites.

“I am sure this would result in a win-win situation for everyone,” said Raymond Long, “area residents would have a more convenient location to bring their unwanted electronics, more of this type of material could be diverted from the landfills, and it would certainly help to increase the revenue that the House of Lazarus receives for their collection efforts.”

Mellan agreed with Long, but went one step further and said, “I think it’s a win-win-win situation.” He believes the deal will benefit South Dundas residents, the township, and the House of Lazarus.

Garlough informed council that  the township has already received permission from the Ministry of Environment to go ahead and collect the electronic waste without need to change the Certificate of Approval. 

Referring to the lengthy wait to get this set up, Garlough said, “what took the most time was to get the go ahead from the Ministry of Environment.”

With the plan in place and things ready to proceed, Mellan expressed concern for the success of the program explaining that in order for it to work, the public must be educated and informed about the availability of the new electronics waste disposal containers.

Mayor Steven Byvelds agreed, “we have to educate the public.”

Landfill staff will be given a list of items to be accepted for the program. While items brought in do not have to work, they do have to be in one piece. Anything smashed won’t be accepted.

“It will work for all of us in the end,” said Byvelds. “It’s a good program. I’m glad it all worked out.”

[…]

 On Sunday, October 5, the Friends of the Sanctuary held a special day to welcome visitors from South Dundas and regions far outside the local area to the Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary near Ingleside, Ontario.

What many of the visitors found they could not do this year was use the open water board walks along the Blue Heron Trail and the popular Redwing Trail. The serious structural deterioration of those walks has forced the Sanctuary to post them.

Unfortunately, these walks are also the access routes to marshland areas where special educational programs often take place.

Hundreds of people, many of them families with small children, take advantage of opportunities to come out and support the Friends and the work they do to build wildlife education, maintain trails, and ensure that birds and animals in this area have a safe year round sanctuary. On Sunday, there were displays, exhibits, and special shows featuring both birds of prey and mammals. Audiences could see first hand how vital the Sanctuary is to this region.

The Friends of the Sanctuary have launched a programme, the Get On Board Project, to try and raise the funds to rebuild the park’s vital walkways, and to restore them to the use of all visitors to the preserve.

“We want to re-build the board walks, yes, but we also want to construct them with educational platforms so that we will be able to provide educational classes  for students,” said Sue Clavet, treasurer for the Friends of the Sanctuary. “We also want to make the new boardwalks wheelchair accessible. This is a huge endeavour to raise enough funds to carry this out. We need volunteers to help us in this project, and to also come up with ideas that will help the project.”

It is estimated that the cost of restoring/replacing and enhancing the boardwalks at the Sanctuary will cost over $400,000.

Some local businesses, including Morrisburg Home Hardware, which donated bird seed for sale October 5, profits to the Project, are already trying to help. The support of the public will be desperately needed to improve the park which draws 60,000 visitors yearly. 

Go to friendsofthesanctuary.org to Get On Board and help restore the park trails. 

[…]

It’s not even finished yet, but the new Iroquois Wastewater Treatment Plant is already getting an addition.

A year ago, South Dundas council decided that the sequencing batch reactor tanks at the new waste water treatment plant in Iroquois would be covered with fibre reinforced plastic, rather than be located within a building, because they believed that was the most cost effective option. 

Now, a year later, they have changed their minds.

At the July 16, council meeting South Dundas council was told that the pricing for the installation of FRP covers came in at $1.3 million, no longer making it a cost effective alternative.

Instead, it was recommended that the tanks be covered with a masonry structure.

“This might just be a blessing in disguise,” said South Dundas councillor Jim Graham. Council agreed, approving the change.

The additional 5,000 square foot masonry structure will cost up to $1.1 million and add about 16 weeks to project completion.

The report from AECOM Canada, of the project management team, points out that housing the tanks within a masonry building allows the plant to run more efficiently, particularly in the winter months. It also aids in controlling odours and results in a more aesthetically pleasing building.

“The masonry cover can be accommodated within the approved funding envelop,” reported South Dundas chief administrative officer Steve McDonald. 

Through this funding envelop, South Dundas has already been able to do significant work on Iroquois underground sewer infrastructure. 

This new spending will have some impact on the amount of infrastructure work that can be done through existing funding, but the impact will be minimal.

South Dundas should still have about $2.9 million worth of funding left to spend on sewer system upgrades in Iroquois. The funding will be fully utilized before the March 2105 cut off date.

[…]