By Neighbourhood News Staff
Tue, Jul 20, 2004 11:00 AM EST

Three east-end councillors have created a solution to the yard waste dilemma facing residents this summer.

Innes councillor Rainer Bloess, Orleans councillor Herb Kreling and Cumberland councillor Rob Jellett announced Friday that Waste Services Incorporated (WSI) will establish three temporary yard waste drop off sites for east end residents for the remainder of the summer.

In addition to providing two pickups a month at three sites, WSI has agreed to accept yard waste at its Navan Road facility six days a week. Both services will be provided at set hours and will cost residents nothing. The cost of the program, approximately $6,000, will be shared by the three east-end councillors from their office budgets.

The partnership with WSI comes in direct response to the public outcry over the city's decision to eliminate summer leaf and yard waste pickup, said the councillors.

"For myself, I had hoped that the whole city council would put something back in place to address the concerns of residents," Kreling told The Star on Monday morning. "When that consideration failed, Rob, Rainer and I discussed how we might work with WSI, because it has a composting part at its facility. They were very interested in helping out and offered to accept waste at its Navan Road facility for free."

Kreling said that WSI normally charges for accepting leaf and yard waste. He also said that a bin placed on a site, including transportation, will cost $225 — considerably less than what the city was paying going door to door. Kreling said that a packer with a truck, at a discounted price, costs $90 an hour.

Jellett said the four east-end councillors had voted to reinstate yard waste pickup at last Wednesday's council meeting. But they lost the motion when other councillors voted against them.

"We did it because residents want it, they wanted a place to take their leaf and yard waste," said Jellett.

In the west end, residents can take their yard waste to Nepean's Trail Road site, for free. We didn't have anything in the east end that's free (prior to the deal with WSI)."

Jellett said that yard waste was being dumped in the rural area in the ditches, and vacant lots in new construction areas were also being targeted.

"The tonnages are smaller than in October or May, but they're still pretty high. You have a 35-foot lot, there's no place to put the stuff. You can't store it and if you leave it outside, it rots and starts to smell," Jellett said.

Waste bins, where local residents will be able to dispose of their yard waste, will be provided at the Orleans Recreation Centre, Blackburn Arena and the Ray Friel Centre on July 24 and 31, Aug. 14 and 28 and Sept. 11 and 25, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.

The WSI facility located at 3354 Navan Rd. will accept yard waste free of charge Monday to Friday 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

When asked why the city cut the program for the summer, Kreling said that it was an attempt to save money during the budget.

Because summer is normally a drier time (with the exception of this week's rain, Kreling said), it was felt that grass clippings and garden trimmings could be handled through backyard composting or containerization.

"We're receiving a lot of complaints over this cut," he said, adding that the complaints showed how important people felt it was to collect yard waste.

"The extent of that concern is larger than (we) expected. A mistake had been made, and we felt we should do something to rectify it," said Kreling.

"I'm really glad we came up with the idea and I hope people will take advantage of it," Jellett added.