GORE BAY-GORDON/BARRIE ISLAND – Representatives of the Gore Bay-Gordon/Barrie Island transfer station committee and a township official wanted to clarify some of the concerns that have been raised concerning the recently implemented ID tag system in place for the transfer station.
“We knew there would be backlash with the ID tag system at the transfer station and that issues would arise,” said Aaron Wright, chair of the Gore Bay-Gordon/Barrie Island Transfer Station committee, on Monday. “But this has been in the works over the years. We are not trying to create problems for local residents, but to create statistics on where the garbage is coming from in the two municipalities so that hopefully we can look at being able to level costs for the two; and the biggest thing is to prevent those people who are not taxpayers in the municipalities from using the transfer station.”
Mr. Wright, who is a Gore Bay town councillor, also wanted to clarify an issue that has arisen on bag limits. “No, we don’t want to see a limit on how many bags of garbage a local taxpayer brings to the transfer station. And no, the tags are not to be put on the bags. Taxpayers need to have an identification tag on hand with them in their vehicle when they are bringing their garbage to the transfer station as it basically lets our site attendants know that they are a ratepayer. With the tags attendants can keep tabs to make sure it is only taxpayers that are using the site. The transfer station is a big expense to both municipalities and that is we want to make sure only local residents-taxpayers are using the transfer station.”
“In the previous article that ran in the Recorder there was a photo of a garbage bag with a tag on it. This caused a lot of problems as many people think they have to put the tags on their bags of garbage and they think you can only have one bag per tag. This is definitely not the case,” said Mr. Wright.
“With the tagging system, a tag is given out to every household that is paying taxes,” confirmed Mr. Wright. He pointed out while Gordon/Barrie Island is allowing a tag to be given out to those who own vacant lots, “we feel that a vacant lot in Gore Bay can’t produce the same amount of taxes on the property so we are not allowing tags for vacant property.”
Carrie Lewis, clerk of Gordon/Barrie Island explained, “a lot of people have requested two tags, but we are issuing one per household. We are not declining service. It has been found that a lot of people who do not own property in either of the municipalities have used the transfer station. But it is only for ratepayers from Gore Bay and Gordon/Barrie Island, who are contributing to the costs of running the transfer station.”
Mr. Wright noted, “eventually there will be local business tags in place for the transfer station as well, so there will be four colours of tags.” He pointed out as well the transfer station has mini-stations set up, “and the attendants at the site are doing a great job. The site is clean and traffic and garbage is flowing well.”
As of September 1, you must have your identification tag or you will be refused entry into the facility.
