Council declines seniors’ leaf pickup proposal

EAGLE STAFF

Town councillors debated the merits of supplying a transport service for compostable material for seniors during their last meeting.

Mayor Trevor Hay said he’d had it added to the meeting discussion agenda at the suggestion of a resident. The person proposed that once a year, the town pick up leaves and grass clippings for senior citizens because of the extra work it requires them to do in the fall, Hay said.

Town councillors decided that enough local entrepreneurs can be hired to take residents’ excess leaves and yard waste to locations such as beside the town shop, shown here, that they didn’t need to provide a service that someone suggested. Photo by Ian MacKay

However, “We have people in town who provide this service, at a cost - actually there are a few of them,” he said during the Feb. 2 gathering. He worried that the town would interfere with their livelihoods by introducing the service.

“There’s at least three to four people in town who provide this yard-work service,” he said later, suggesting that perhaps some who need the help don’t know about those already doing it.

Staff could try to get the names and contact information of people so employed and provide them to callers, suggested Amanda Bors, the interim chief administrator.

Hay added that their names and phone numbers could go into the Age Friendly booklet of services locally available.

“People have ideas of the town helping out in certain ways but sometimes it’s onerous on our workers who are already doing lots of jobs,” he said.

Some people already collect bags of leaves to fortify the soil in their gardens, councillor John Kadler said.

Greg Carlson suggested collecting lawn refuse for seniors once a year.

but Bors posed a scenario of choosing a day and an emergency forcing cancellation of the collection.

Public Works superintendent Bob Bors had heard the suggestion from somebody “who doesn’t own a truck,” he said.

“You could bag them and put them in the back of your SUV or car, as well,” he said.

A person who does yard work commercially said they make “a lot of trips for other people,” that they don’t regularly work for, Amanda Bors said.

Jan Coffey-Olson said she thought she’d seen posters on bulletin boards from people offering the service.