The Municipality of Cumberland’s chief administrative officer is urging Pugwash area residents to be vigilant about vandalism taking place at the community’s transfer station on the Irishtown Road.
Since earlier this year, there have been a number of acts of vandalism surrounding the locks and the gates at the transfer station. It has the CAO sounding the warning about something no one wants – the loss of the facility.
“The frequency of vandalism to our locks and gates has escalated, unfortunately,” Greg Herrett said. “It has to stop.”
Early in June, Public Works for the municipality reinforced the gate at the transfer station with extra protection around a new lock, but between June 13 and 17, someone cut away the reinforcement and the new lock with power tools.
The damage was repaired and further reinforced protection of the lock. However, on June 27, the transfer station attendant discovered the gate had been dismantled and discarded in an adjacent ditch.
On July 4, garbage was dumped in front of the gate while on July 15 the gate was removed and thrown aside. Finally, on July 25, the lock was cut and the gate broken.
Public Works has been tasked with reinstating the gate and a report has been submitted to the RCMP.
The CAO said the gates are being vandalized to gain entry to the site to discard materials outside regular operating hours. Materials are being discarded in improper locations and materials not accepted at the transfer station are being dumped.
Other residents have opportunistically used the dump when the gates have been left open by vandals.
“It’s costly, it’s inconvenient and it causes worrisome regulatory compliance issues for the municipality. It seems like it has become a sport or some sort of twisted challenge to the vandals,” the CAO said, adding the municipality is looking at options to document and prevent the vandalism. “If the vandalism continues, at some point one of the options we will be forced to put in front of council for consideration will be closure of the facility. No one wants to do that but at some point, you have run out of viable alternatives to be able to provide the service.”
Herrett is urging those responsible to come to their senses and stop and is asking anyone with information regarding who is responsible to share it with the municipality or police.
The transfer station is open on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Anyone depositing materials at the facility outside these hours may be subject to fine.