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Recycling depot moves off Main Street

CSRD agrees to relocate the Sicamous recycling depot even though staff believe downtown location is the best site.
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The Sicamous recycle depot office is loaded for transport to the depot’s new location behind Parkland Mall.

The Columbia Shuswap Regional District has agreed to relocate the Sicamous recycling depot even though staff believe the current location downtown is the best site.

District of Sicamous council asked regional district staff to investigate options because of planned future upgrades at the corner of Main Street and Highway 97A.

In his report to the CSRD board of directors, Environmental Health Services team leader Ben Van Nostrand pointed out that the struggle to find a favourable location has been ongoing for the past 10 years.

“The main issue has been siting the depot in a location that is convenient for the public, while at the same time not situated in a location prone to vandalism,” he wrote in his report to the Jan. 21 board meeting. “Over the years, several locations have been trialed, but unfortunately these sites were often too secluded and, as a result, the bins were vandalized.”

Van Nostrand said that since the depot was located at the highly visible Main Street site, there has been no vandalism.

“We’ve worked on this for a year-and-a-half,” said Van Nostrand of the new site at 1133 Eagle Pass Way (behind the Parkland Mall) and a request that the board endorse a memorandum of understanding between the District of Sicamous and CSRD.

“The MOU is based on the site we’ve located, even though we think the current one is best.”

The MOU stipulates that the District of Sicamous will be responsible for all costs associated with the relocation of the bins to the Parkland Centre location and will be responsible for any site improvement costs necessary to ensure vandalism is minimized.

CSRD chair Rhona Martin noted bins at previous sites had been set on fire and asked about lighting behind the mall.

Sicamous Mayor Terry Rysz thanked Van Nostrand for working with the district over concerns about appearance and noted extra lighting, a security camera and fencing would all be installed in an effort to reduce vandalism.