Lynn Lake residents fed up with the garbage

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This article was published 16/03/2013 (4788 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The mayor of Lynn Lake knew people in town were fed up with waiting for their garbage to be picked up, but he wasn’t expecting them to dump their waste in the back of his truck to show their displeasure.

“Last Thursday, I walked out to my truck at lunchtime and looked in the back and ‘what the hell?’ ” James Lindsay, a teacher at West Lynn Heights School, said on Friday.

“I park right next to the school’s garbage bin, so I just moved it all in there. I chuckled a bit, ‘OK, OK, OK.’ I would rather that than somebody start yelling at me. What are you going to do?”

Garbage hadn’t been picked up in over a week after the safety had expired on the town’s garbage truck. There had been multiple delays in getting someone certified to perform the safety. As well, the town was waiting for a part to fix the truck window.

Lindsay said the garbage-truck driver was trying to maintain service by using a town-owned pickup truck and making multiple trips to the dump. With 675 people in town, one driver with one vehicle obviously wasn’t fast enough.

“We simply couldn’t afford to take it up to Thompson (to get the safety and the part),” Lindsay said.

“The safety was completed on Tuesday. It went out picking up garbage on Wednesday morning. Our operator had to take the afternoon off, but he was picking up garbage on Thursday and today (Friday).”

Frustration in town had been building and not just because of the garbage problem. Three streets have had water-main breaks and a boil-water order has been in place since October because of problems with the new water-treatment plant.

“When I turn my tap on in the bathroom, the water is about as brown as tepid tea. But you get in the brown water (to bath or shower) because it beats stinking,” said Larry Michaluk who, along with his wife, have lived in Lynn Lake for 29 years and raised their four children there.

“My problem is, if you want the money (taxes and water bill), we’ll pay you, but do something. I’m not the only one; I know just going up to the store (buying bottled water), people aren’t happy.”

Initially a supply pipe burst. That’s been fixed, but then problems with the filtration system surfaced. The water is being treated with chlorine so it can be used for bathing and cleaning but not for drinking.

At the school, which has 185 students, vice-principal Larry Skomorowski said water-cooler dispensers were installed in each classroom. Large jugs of water are brought in at a cost of about $25 per day and refilled at the Northern Store, an expense that was not part of the original budget for the year.

“Overall, it’s been a slight inconvenience, but we’ve been able to deal with it due to the fact that we are in an older town,” said Skomorowski.

Lindsay said the company that designed and installed the water-treatment plant has been helping identify and correct the problems.

It’s hoped the plant is back online early next week.

“There’s a fair bit of frustration out there, because we’ve had ongoing water problems since the community was built, really,” Lindsay said.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca