By William Crooks
Local Journalism Initiative
Ayer’s Cliff held its regularly monthly council meeting Oct. 2. Around 10 residents attended; the Mayor (sick) and Director General (on vacation) could not be there.
Recycling issues were discussed at length during the meeting.
The meeting began just after 7 p.m. After the adoption of the agenda, a discussion of accounts payable, and the adoption of the minutes for the previous meeting, there was a question period.
One man asked about a novel regulation he heard about concerning entrances to basements. He lives on a hill and was wondering what exactly counts as a basement. He might want to rent out his basement, he said, because of all the taxes he pays. A ripple of laughter spread through the gathering. After some discussion, it was agreed among the councillors that the bylaws governing that exist somewhere, but they were not sure what they were, and that it was very likely he could rent out his basement in the future if he so wished.
One woman complained about a problem with recycling pick-up. She is not sure how many times it has happened, but at least once every one or two months the recycling pick-up simply does not happen for her and her neighbours at the end of the truck’s route. She wanted to know if this was going to be fixed and if there is some sort of explanation for why this is happening.
A councillor told the woman that complaints would be taken to the recycling company, for it has contractual obligations that must be fulfilled. It was suggested that recycling that was missed should be left out and that it would be picked up later on. The woman responded that it was picked up later once, but she has waited more than a week before for that to happen and that was too long, especially during times when the bin would be in the way of snow removal.
