Cache Creek Council won’t give up weekend service at Wastech’s Residential Drop Off (RDO) site. They agreed at the Jan. 12 Council meeting to Wastech’s request to reduce winter hours to four days per week, but said two of those days had to be Saturday and Sunday.
Wastech General Manager Angus Gardner and Director of Environmental Services Janet Tecklenborg were at the meeting.
Tecklenborg said the landfill will remain open Monday to Friday and those hours won’t be changed by the reduced RDO hours.
She said they were trying to match other TNRD sites with the hours. If it didn’t work, she said, they could change it back.
Gardner said they were also planning to close landfill on statutory holidays.
Coun. Wyatt McMurray was not happy with Wastech’s planned reduction and made the motion to tell Wastech that Cache Creek wanted the RDO open five days per week, including weekends, and that days would be eight hours long in the winter and 12 hours in the summer.
Coun. Herb Hofer made a friendly amendment to that, allowing for a four-day week in the winter but keeping everything else the same, including the weekend hours.
That motion was carried.
Wastech is also planning to ask people using the RDO to present photo ID for proof of residency.
Coun. Herb Hofer asked Tecklenborg if they were going to follow through with that.
“The RDO is a free service for residents of Cache Creek, Ashcroft and Area I” she said.
The RDO attendants know most of the local people, but in the event they don’t recognize someone, the picture ID is a last resort.
Hofer said landfill employees have pointed out the large number of big items such as mattresses and refrigerators being left at the landfill. Hofer said it seemed like too much to left behind by just local residents.
Garbage drop off at the RDO, which is located near the landfill, is free for residents, unlike other Transfer Stations around the TNRD where residents have to pay tipping fees based on weight to drop off their garbage.