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Jeff Green | Apr 05, 2007

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Portland councillors serve notice over waste site amalgamationby Jeff Green

“I’m not against amalgamation,” Councilor Bill Robinson told a crowd of people at the Verona Lions Hall last Thursday, “but I think we can still amalgamate without taking our dump.”

Flanked by fellow councilor Jim Hicks, Robinson took a few minutes at the end of a doctor recruitment meeting to give people a “heads up about what is coming down the pike” from South Frontenac Township. He was referring to a series of initiatives all leading to a master waste management plan for the township (see South Frontenac council report).

Under the current situation, waste management is still area rated, and this suits Portland district’s interests, according to Robinson, because the Portland dump has by far the most capacity within the township.

“We’ve put $400,000 into our dump, and we don’t want it taken away, and there’s no reason to push this through in a hurry. Bedford and Loughborough have some time left in their dumps, but they are shoving this down our throats. It’s like three paupers and a millionaire throwing their money in the middle and saying we’ll share it all afterwards,” he said.

Robinson said that back in the ’70s, Laidlaw inc. offered a million dollars each to Portland and Storrington Districts for their dumps. Storringon took the money and now they pay to truck their waste to the Richmond landfill while Portland said no and has decades of dumping left at its own site.

Robinson and Hicks have vowed to fight any attempt to amalgamate township dumpsites, and Robinson told the News that a public meeting on the issue will be called sometime soon.