A Timmins mining company is putting in the elbow grease to clean up part of the community, and the city is doing its part to help the process.
Newmont Porcupine is doing a cleanup of illegal dumping in the Schumacher area east of Timmins. For the items collected, the City of Timmins is waiving the tipping fees at the Deloro Landfill, council approved at its July 11 meeting.
In a letter to the city, Newmont's senior reclamation co-ordinator, Patrick Dzijacky, said the significant cleanup and improvement project is focused on the Hollinger Legacy Park in the Moneta Road area, Vipond Road and Schumacher areas.
“I would love for our community to continue to be beautiful and not have garbage scattered around,” said Coun. Kristin Murray, who also has concerns about the ambiguity of some of the other items in the letter.
Newmont's request includes brushing activities, installing a new parking area, fence repairs, garbage removal and improving water management.
"We hope to work towards addressing the access and illegal dumping activities that are occurring in these areas as well," reads Dzijacky's letter.
The motion approved by council only allows for the tipping fees to be waived for items illegally dumped on their property.
Councillors questioned the clearing of trees and brush and additional parking. Further clarity on those items may be brought back to the council table at Newmont's request.
Schumacher Coun. Bill Gvozdanovic has talked to Newmont about the project.
He also gave some insight into items such as the brush clearing that are not approved yet.
"They’re also at the old Hollinger Golf Club going to begin … (to) cut the branches off the trees up to a certain height because they’ve had to clear encampments out of there. There was three of them that they had to clear and that’s a huge expense for them,” he said.
The cost of waiving the tipping fees is not known yet but can be tracked. It will depend on how many loads are dropped off and the weight of each one.
“If we could just keep a hard total of what the waived dump fees are. There are other councillors and myself who are concerned with fees related to, for instance, what the city is putting into cleaning up the city, homelessness encampment, and this would fall under that area,” said Coun. Andrew Marks.
While CAO Dave Landers suggested going back to Newmont for clarification on the areas of concern, Coun. Steve Black didn't want Newmont to wait until council's next meeting on Aug. 8 to do its cleanup.
— TimminsToday
