Grey Highlands council wants to see the Artemesia waste diversion site open an extra day each week.
At its meeting on April 5, council directed staff to bring more information about traffic volumes at the Markdale waste diversion site with an eye towards transferring one of Markdale’s open days to Artemesia.
Currently, the Artemesia site on Grey County Road 14 is open one day a week on Sundays. The Osprey waste diversion site is open Saturdays. Markdale is open on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.
More than three years ago, the council of the day passed a resolution asking for a staff report about opening Artemesia a second day of the week. The report was delayed by department restructuring and did not arrive for council’s consideration until the meeting on April 5.
In the report, staff said an additional day at Artemesia would require additional staff resources that would cost an estimated $26,000. With the three sites open a combined five days a week, current staff are running at capacity. The report suggested Wednesday or Thursday as the days that could be used to open up the Artemesia site a second day of the week.
Some members of council were not happy with the report.
“I’m disappointed in this report,” said Coun. Paul Allen, who noted that the original council resolution clearly asked for a new schedule for the three sites that would allow a second day at Artemesia. “That’s not what this report has done. It has pointed out all the negative aspects to opening another day.”
The municipality's director of environmental services, Shawn Moyer, said staff had reviewed the situation and provided their best analysis in the report, which did include a recommended extra day for the Artemesia site to open should council move in that direction.
After discussing the issue, council asked for staff to provide data about attendance at the Markdale site to determine if a date swap between Markdale and Artemesia would work.
“Opening Artemesia a second day is a high priority in my mind,” said Mayor Paul McQueen.
