Parksville city council wants to know if downtown garbage cans are being put to good use.
During the last meeting on April 19, council directed city staff to review both the number of public garbage cans between McVickers Street and McMillan Street, and where exactly they’re located.
Coun. Adam Fras’s successful motion requested staff to report back their findings back to council within six months.
His motion also requested staff present a strategy that provided an even distribution of the existing garbage cans. City staff will also advise the Parksville Downtown Business Association (PDBA) of council’s intent, with the possibly of reorganizing the current inventory of garbage cans.
“This is something we need to do to see if we’re meeting the current needs of our residents and their expectations,” said Fras. “And judging off the fact that we’ve had seven requests come up previously on garbage cans, I’d say that we haven’t made any progress in meeting their needs.”
According to Fras, the city currently does not have any standard for garbage can locations and he considers passing his motion as the smallest step that council can make while still moving forward.
“I do think this is something that should’ve been done awhile ago so that we could have it in time for summer, but recognizing staff’s workload and that - if we don’t start now it’s going to take years until anything is done with it.”
Fras said that passing his motion would also create an avenue for residents to facilitate a conversation on the downtown garbage cans, instead of residents simply learning about the change afterwards.
Coun. Teresa Patterson agreed that there does appear to be an abundance of cans in one area and not enough in others, and suggested staff seek feedback from the PDBA as well.
Both Coun. Doug O’Brien and Coun. Marilyn Wilson voted in opposition of the motion.
O’Brien said he relied on the judgment of city workers that decided how many cans there were, and where they should go in the downtown core, and he and Wilson both expressed their beliefs of “you pack it in, you pack it out” during the council meeting.