Creston residents no longer have an option to drop their yard waste on Town property, Town Council has decided.
The Davis Drive site, adjacent to the wastewater treatment plant west of Highway 21, has been closed to the public.
“The decision to close the Davis Drive yard waste drop off site was not one that was undertaken lightly”, Mayor Ron Toyota said on Tuesday. “During budget discussions, staff determined that in 2019, the cost to maintain the facility would be close to $40,000 in new taxation. As the Davis Drive facility is a duplication of the service provided by the RDCK, that our residents are already being taxed for, Council felt that closing this site was the best decision. In addition, based upon ongoing discussions with the Regional District, Council is hopeful that in the next couple of years we will have a new program in place to expand the organic waste diversion and our recycling to curbside within the Town of Creston.”
The RDCK-operated landfill site is open from Tuesday through Saturday, and fees for dumping yard waste are waived during the months of April and October.
See the RDCK website www.rdck.ca for more information, including what is acceptable as yard and garden waste.
The Town will continue the recent practice of curbside pickup during one week in both April and October. This year residents can place their yard waste out for collection on their regular garbage pickup days. Curbside pickup will be done the week of April 22.
Branches and prunings should be cut into three-foot lengths and wrapped in bundles. Grass clippings, leaves, etc. must be placed in rigid, weatherproof containers (ie. garbage cans). Note that plastic garbage bags with yard waste will not be accepted and compostable materials must be separated from household garbage and placed curbside for pickup.
“We sincerely appreciate all of the efforts that our citizens make to beautify their yards and therefore, our Town”, Mayor Toyota said. “We know that our residents appreciated the convenience that the Davis Drive yard waste drop off provided and recognize that the popularity of this service has grown exponentially since it started in 2010. The unfortunate reality is that not only is the maintenance of this public facility cost prohibitive and a duplication of a service that our taxpayers are already paying for, we simply do not have enough area to process the volume of product – hundreds of cubic yards – that we receive each year.”
More information on the spring yard and garden clean up conducted by the Town of Creston can be found on its website – www.creston.ca or by phoning the Public Works Department 250-428-2214 ext. 233.