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Council meets for the ‘last’ time

With their meeting falling on the first Monday after the election Midway council got right down to business as usual.
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Village of Midway Administrator Penny Feist answers a question from councillor Gary Schierbeck while councillor Dick Dunsdon looks on.

Village of Midway council met for their final regular meeting as politicians serving a three year term on Nov. 17. When next they meet on Dec. 1, they will be sworn in to office for four years.

Councillor Richard Dunsdon told council he sees the results of the municipal election as an opportunity to “establish real and continuing dialogue with Area E and Greenwood on matters such

as the library, arena and fire services.” Councillor Gary Schierbeck said he’d campaigned under the banner of economic development and he promised to continue to push the issue for the next four years at the council table.

Councillor Darrin Metcalf agreed with Schierbeck about the importance of economic development, saying he sees upgrades to Riverfront Park as “huge in the whole tourism thing.”

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Council met with representatives from the Old Country-Western Bluegrass Festival to review the rates charged for the group to rent facilities for the 2015 event. After hearing organizers Vic and Brenda Lepinski and Dave and Birdie Lyle, council voted to leave the rate unchanged for the coming year.

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Council received a request from the Midway Community Association to cover their insurance costs for the upcoming two-day run of All that Glisters in the Midway Community Hall. After much discussion it was agreed by council to cover the costs as a loan to the group, which is just starting out.

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Councillor Marguerite Rotvold gave council an update on the work on the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary’s solid waste management plan.

“There was discussion of unstaffed recycling trailers and options for people affected and options for small businesses because those unstaffed trailers may end up getting removed under our new waste management plan,” she reported. “That would affect some businesses in Midway because some businesses do use the unmanned trailers and some rural residents don’t have roadside pickup.”

She explained that staffed depots are the only place that accepts glass, Styrofoam and film packaging.

“We also talked about the reuse centres at three regional district landfills will continue or not,” she said, adding that the plan has identified the need for much more and better information to the residents pertaining to recycling materials, locations, etc.

“Here’s an example,” she explained. “Glad sandwich bags are not classified as packaging. But if you go into a bulk food store and you use a Glad sandwich bag to put the contents in, it is packaging. But this is what Multi-Materials Recycling BC is saying. So there is lots of stuff that has to be explained clearly to the residents.”

She said the board believes that user fees drive recycling. “They say the higher the user fees the more recycling gets done because people don’t want to pay for garbage so they are recycling. The board has in the past passed a motion to move more to user pay and less to taxation. People who produce the garbage should be paying not the taxpayer. That is something that will be in the new plan also.”

In regards to illegal roadside dumping, she said the RCMP can enforce the Environment Act for illegal dumping, along with Conservation Officers. “So if we know who is dumping contact RCMP or conservation officer to act on it,” she advised.

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The next meeting of the Village of Midway council will be on Monday, Dec. 1 at 6:30 p.m. if there is a delegation on the agenda, or at 7 p.m. if there is none.