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Letters to the EditorLetters to the Editor

To the Editor

A couple of weeks ago I was once again disappointed to see a couple of bags of household garbage and recycling dumped outside the gate at the Ingoldsby Waste Transfer station. I seems to happen about eight to 10 times a year. I can only imagine the jerk that left their crap out for someone else to clean up after the wildlife had given the garbage a good going over. I’ve seen hazardous material dumped outside the gate from time to time as well. It can take as much as three weeks before the debris can be picked up – often by then there’s little point.

I thought I’d like to offer to help stop this type of behaviour. Checking at Canadian Tire I see that I can get a good quality video camera that is battery operated and motion sensitive that could be installed in a nice high tree behind the locked gate. I spoke to the attendant today and offered to buy one for all the dumps in and around Minden and Haliburton. It would be my pleasure to help put a stop to these thoughtless acts.

I thought that even if we couldn’t get any municipal “no dumping” bylaw enforced (that’s just my suspicion) we could at the very least post the details of the person’s vehicle (type colour licence number) and perhaps create a “board of shame” which might be enough for these people to stop acting so thoughtlessly?

Apparently you can’t take a video of someone without posting a sign that says you are taking a video of them. OK. That’s fine.  I can’t believe that someone would suggest that it’s an “invasion of their privacy” to be caught littering red handed. How timid are we as a community to accept that interpretation?

The dump’s environmental managers say that they have been told not to do this by the municipality so they can’t accept my offer to donate a bunch of video cameras.  But thanks anyway.
I wonder if there’s a way around this? I wonder if there’s another solution? Maybe some of your readers might have some ideas? Maybe it’s a matter of education?

Jim Aston
Minden