Blue Box Blues

Beiseker is one of the smallest communities in this province to offer a complete curbside pickup of most recyclables! 

We recycle cardboard, household metal, plastic, newsprint, and bond paper, all of which are picked up in the blue boxes every Wednesday morning! We offer drop-off recycling/disposal facilities for used oil, paint, batteries, tires, appliances, furniture, mattresses, and e-cycling material.  We do not recycle domestic glass.  Glass recycling will resume when a suitable glass recycling receiver can be found. 

Our program is one of the most comprehensive recycling projects to be offered in Alberta!  Unfortunately, it has come under scrutiny in these tough economic times as being too expensive to continue.  All of our volunteer recycling team has moved on, leaving all the work of recycling to our Public Works Staff.

Council agreed to continue the program until more information is acquired.  The first item on the "hit list" is the Blue Box pick up service.  Is this service being used to its maximum?  Would folks be willing to haul their blue boxes down to the Recycling Shed in the Public Works Yard, if picked up was discontinued?  Or would most recycling end up in Friday's garbage to be hauled to Drumheller and buried, if the Blue Box Pick Up was discontinued?

I, with former Beiseker Village Councilor Fred Bell, started our extensive recycling program many years ago and I am very proud of it.  What can we do to save it?

Great Clean-Up Day!

We had about two dozen people turn out for Beiseker's annual Clean-Up Day!  We did a clean-up all around town, but we concentrated on the public areas and parks. 

Please check in the lane way behind your house for anything that fell there with the snow this past winter. that we might have missed.   Don't forget the irregular garbage pick-up on May 19!

Councillor Dave McKenzie arranged to have a shredding truck from Iron Mountain here on Saturday, too.  Donations were made to the Library.  Thanks Dave! 

Here's a BPOTB (Beiseker Pat On The Back) and a thank-you to all of you who helped out and to Michelle Boyer for organizing the day.

Clean Up Saturday Morning!

Don't forget today, Saturday, May 9 is Beiseker's annual clean-up day.  We meet at the Village Office in Beiseker at 10:00 a.m.  They'll have garbage bags for us there and a map showing which public  areas of town need our attention.  I'll see you there!

Temporary Changes to Garbage & Recycling Pick-up

Despite Beiseker Public Works' best efforts, our back lanes and alleys have become impassable to our garbage and recycling trucks.  The problem is we've run out of place to put all this snow!

So until further notice, all garbage and recycling pick-ups will take place from the street side in front of your home or business.  Starting this Friday (January 17), those pick-ups will made in front of your home or businesss.

Please have residential and business garbage out in front by 8:00 a.m., except Main Street garbage and recycling which should be out by 9:00 a.m. 

Please know that this is a temporary solution, and we hope to get back to normal collection procedures as soon as some of the snow melts and Public Works is able to widen the access down the alleys and lanes.

Thank you so much for your patience, cooperation and understanding.

Snow Removal!

With the first snowfall of the year, there's been comments about street snow removal in Beiseker, as well as some confusion about what the Village does about it - and doesn't do.  So here is my understanding of our snow removal policies;

• After each snowfall, our Public Works Department gets to work with three main pieces of equipment; the large plow-sanding truck, the skid-steer, and the tractor.  We do not own a grader.  In our opinion, a grader is a very expensive piece of machinery to own and maintain.
• Main Street (including the central business district) and the main arteries are plowed first.  The business sidewalks are also cleared.
• As in most municipalities, residential streets are not usually cleared unless they are impassable.
• Lanes are checked over on the Thursday to make sure the garbage truck and recycling van can get around.
• Public parking lots are cleared.
• The airport runway is always the last to be cleared.
• Residents are given 72 hours to clear the snow from the public sidewalk in front of their homes.
• The village maintains a snow removal budget which is not huge.  Moving snow is expensive!

Snow removal policies always generate much discussion in council.  Council must balance the need to keep the people of Beiseker moving and the cost of plowing and hauling snow.  The larger our snow removal budget and costs, the more risk that another program might have to be trimmed or that taxes may have to be increased!

If you think this needs to be changed, please contact a council member so that they can take your concerns to the rest of council.

(And let's pray for a lot of chinooks!)

Quiet Halloween

We had one of the quietest Halloweens ever here on my street.  Less than 50 kids came to our door last night.  It may have been the weather and the fact that it was a school night which kept the little ghosts and zombies away.

It was also quiet in the village as far as vandalism is concerned.  I have yet to hear of any severe acts of vandalism around Beiseker.

Updates;

• Work on the Bassano Station appears to have ground to a halt again.  I'm not sure what's happening there.  Stay tuned.
• Garbage woes have pretty much dissappeared.  I forgot to mention last week that hazardous waste is still not to go in those green garbage bags heading for Drumheller, but you knew that already. 
• Remembrance Day is coming November 11.  If you attending the ceremonies in Acme, get there early.  Seating is always at a premium.
• I've heard that Beiseker Councillor Fred Walters will be presented with the Queen Elizabeth 60th Anniversary medal for his work in our community.  More on this later.
• Christmas is coming and Beiseker's Food Bank will be needing supplies.

Trash Talk

I've heard from a few of you wanting more information on Beiseker's garbage, composting, and recycling program, so here's the scoop.

Garbage:  All of our garbage is is placed in a large container called a Transtor, then trucked to Drumheller by the Drumheller and District Solid Waste Management Association.  We are a member of that association.  Once it reaches the Drumheller site, it is buried in a highly regulated and fully monitored landfill site.

Each residence is allowed three green garbage bags full of garbage per week,  These are picked up each Friday morning and dumped into the two Transtors at our waste management site behind the Public Works building.  A large specially built semi shows up after Garbage Day and hauls it all to Drumheller.

What people throw out in those three green garbage bags is their own business.  As long as it weighs less than 50 pounds (23 Kg.), it's good to go.

We do encourage composting and recycling, but we cannot force folks to do that.

By the way, if you want a fourth or fifth green garbage bag picked up, you must buy a garbage tag for each of them at the Village Office.

Recycling:  Many years ago, I created Beiseker Recycling.  We collected just cardboard, newspaper, and metal.

Since that time, Councillor Fred Walters has advanced our recycling program to include many other products.  Most of these are trucked into Calgary and sold to recyclers.

Beiseker has a very successful blue box program.  Blue boxes full of recyclables are picked up every Friday morning from every residence in the village. We recycle:

• Cardboard
• Newspapers
• bond paper
• metal food cans (washed)
• plastic
• Plastic grocery bags
• glass (washed)
• tires*
• car batteries*
• electronics*
• used oil*
• mattresses and sofas**
• appliances**

The fine print:
* You will have to arrange to have it hauled down there.
** You will have to arrange to have it hauled down there and there may be a fee to dispose of it.

Composting:  This is all those grass clippings, leaves, garden trash, and kitchen scraps (not meat). You have four choices here:

1. You can compost in your yard using one of a number of different methods.  Most have no odor and produces great fertilizer for your gardens.
2. You can haul your composting material down to the community composting pile at our waste management site.  You simply throw onto the top of the pile.  If you need composted material, go aroud to the bottom of the pile and collect yourself some next spring.
3. You could create a garden waste pile at the back of your yard.  Public Works will pick it up twice a year.
4. You could throw it into one of those three green garbage bags and have it sent to Drumheller.  Definitely the least favourable choice and one we discourage. 

So, there it is; the scoop on our waste management.

If you have further questions about Beiseker's waste management programs, the folks at the Village Office can probably answer them.  Give them a call (403) 947-3774

Wayward Furniture?

I noticed that an old couch or sofa had run away from home and found its way onto the Public Reserve strip near the footbridge.  It languished there until I had Public Works remove it. 

Here's a reminder to all of you with runaway furniture;  Public Works will remove your old furniture and mattresses on Garbage Day.  All you have to do is pay the disposal fee which varies from $5.00 to $25.00, depending on what it is.  Simply phone the Village Office (403-947-3774) at least 48 hours before Garbage Day and make the arrangements. 

We can't guarantee it will be picked up the very next Garbage Day, but it will be picked up!  And it won't become an eyesore in the lane or on the Public Reserve.

Trash to Power projects questioned

Lately, there has been talk around these parts of establishing a huge complex which would burn garbage to produce electricity.  At first glance it does appear to be a great idea.  It'd save trying to recycle it, or bury it in a landfill site somewhere. 

But I really think there are some questions we need answers to before millions of dollars are invested.

• What kind of emissions will be given off by this complex and how will it affect our "carbon footprint"?
• Everything can't be burned.  What will happen to the rest?
• Will the incineration of possible recyclables have the affect of stunting the growing recycling industry in Alberta?  Proponents of the project suggest that the recycling industry won't be affected.  I really wonder about that.  Right now we can recycle tires, plastic, bond paper, cardboard, compost, newspaper, used oil, all metals, and lead acid batteries.  We can't recycle large tree branches, disposable diapers, and wood furniture but is there enough of that kind of stuff to keep a huge plant like they're proposing properly fed?

I truly believe that these questions must be satisfactorily answered before we move ahead on this.  Let me know what you think.

Trash and Taxes

TRASH: After the snow melted from the ditch on the west side of Beiseker Airport, pilots noticed paper and plastic bags blowing across the runway.  We went to investigate.  We found a whole pile of household garbage thrown in the ditch about 400 yards north of Highway #9 along that road allowance!  How would anyone in their right minds confuse a rural road ditch with a landfill site. 

The authorities told me I would have to catch the culprit in the act of dumping it there and get a vehicle licence number in order to press charges.  We (Rocky View County and Beiseker's Public Works) cleaned it up. 

If you ever see a suspicious vehicle with folks throwing garbage from it, get a plate number!

TAXES: As you know, the provincial government adds on an "Education Portion" to your property taxes each year.  We collect it but it's their money!  Today they came to collect their first installment. 

We owed the province $70,000.00! 

But over 20% of Beisekerites haven't paid their 2011 taxes yet!  We still owe the province over $70,000.00!  We paid it, but that payment severely hurt our village cash flow!  Right now there is a little over $300,000.00 of unpaid 2011 tax money owed the Village of Beiseker!  But the province doesn't care - They just want their $70,000.00! 

Those amounts might not seem much if you're looking at a big city, but it sure matters here!  Some of our summer projects may have to be delayed until these back taxes are paid.