Smithers and Telkwa hope they’ve found a way to re open their shuttered reuse shed.
The centres were closed across the Regional District last year after live ammunition, human waste and syringes were found in some.
The mayors of the two municipalities and RDBN director Mark Fisher tabled a proposal for the district on Thursday.
Smithers Mayor Taylor Bachrach says they hope to hire a contractor to manage the facility at a cost of $25,000-$50,000 a year.
He says it’s money well spent. “We already have to truck all our waste to the landfill at Knockholt, so there are huge transportation costs, there are huge landfill development costs. We really want to be moving in a direction where we are putting less in the landfill.”
Given the massive size of the RDBN, Bachrach says it might be best if each municipality manages their own shed.
“We felt that the challenges of getting every community on the same page, and coming up with the same strategy across the whole regional district was not really going to be practicable.”
He noted that other district and municipalities have plans in motion to get their reuse sheds reopened, they were just the first ones to have a completed plan.
The plan aims to have the reuse sheds open this Spring.