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11 | 22 | 2014 VOLUME 19 | ISSUE 47
THE LITTLE MERMAID COMES TO LIFE ON STAGE THE ARTS PAGE 17
COMMENT PAGE 8
INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS HIGHLIGHT FISCAL WOES
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Woolwich wants transfer station sold to private operator Township will push Region of Waterloo to keep Elmira site open until it can be turned over to a private company STEVE KANNON The waste transfer station in Elmira should be sold to a private operator, Woolwich council agreed this week. Moreover, the township wants the Region of Waterloo to keep the site open until a deal is finalized and control handed over to a new owner. As it stands, service has been scaled back dramatically and the region plans to shutter the well-used facility at the end of next March. Keeping the service going during any transition is paramount in making it economically viable for a private operator, township chief administrative officer David Brenneman told councillors meeting Tuesday night. “What we’ve heard is ... continuity of service is critical.” Brenneman has met with regional officials as well as two potential private oper-
ators, Waste Management Canada and Plein Disposal Inc. Noting that the township is prohibited by provincial legislation from getting into the waste disposal field, by leasing the transfer station site from the region, for instance, he said the best option is for the region to declare the land as surplus and sell it to a private company. While not overly keen on having the transfer station remain open even in private hands – it maintains curbside collection is all that’s needed in the townships – the region is looking at the option, he said. Sale of the land would be necessary as the region is constrained by union agreements against leasing out the facility to a private operator, nor does it want to maintain responsibility for future upgrade costs, Brenneman added. Projected long-term capital expenditures of more TRANSFER STATION | 25
Students in Wellesley took advantage of a snow day on Nov. 18, sledding behind the St. Clements Arena. From left, Jade Lipczynski, Nikki Beam, Jessie Herbison, Olivia Bolender, Taylor Hartung, Abbey Brick, Lucas Economides, Nolan Hislop, Jake Voisin, Zac Good, and Liam Dietrich. [WHITNEY NEILSON / THE OBSERVER]
SCOTT BARBER While the early arrival of snow and bitter cold temperatures across the region this week certainly evokes memories of last year’s brutal winter, it may not be a harbinger of another abnormally harsh season.
“What we’re calling for is a winter that is not going to be as long or as cold as last year, even though after this week, we will have had more snow than we did at this time last year,” Dave Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada said. “Don’t be seduced by that though,
because a snowy beginning does not mean a snowy end.” Following a recordbreaking winter that brought extreme cold, heavy snowfall and a disastrous ice storm to southern Ontario, forecasters predict a return to the mean. “It may be a normal win-
ter, but given what we had last year, normal will seem like a tropical heat wave,” Phillips said. In fact, this first blast “shouldn’t have much staying power,” Phillips added, as temperatures are expected to climb back towards WINTER | 25
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