Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

NNSL (July 28/99) - City council was about to stand by and watch, with their approval, a $90,000 Take It or Leave It depot be constructed at the dump.

That changed at a meeting last Monday when a recommendation to postpone the project was introduced and passed by city councillors.

Dave Ramsay was the only councillor to vote against the depot originally when it came up as a 1999 budget item and was instrumental in getting the project delayed.

"We don't have a concrete operational plan for this project and we don't know what's going to happen in the future with it," Ramsay said at Monday's meeting.

"We don't know if the interest group who is going to operate it will stay or what the operation and maintenance costs will be. This is something that we don't need at a time when we should be looking to curb our spending habits wherever possible."

The purpose of the depot is to offer residents a place to drop off or pick up re-usable items such as furniture, appliances and clothing.

Chartrand Homes was the only interest group to answer the city's call for Expressions of Interest to run the operation.

City administrator, Max Hall, pointed out that Chartrand qualified their proposal by asking that they be able to sell some of the items collected to offset their costs. He also said that the details of the operation "haven't been flushed out" but that they are in the process of doing that.

The city was days away from asking for design tenders to build the depot and planned to have it constructed by September.

"Something that people could go to the dump and grab for free today they would have to pay for when this is done. I can't agree with this," Ramsay said.

It was Mayor Dave Lovell who made the recommendation to postpone.

"This building has never been one of my favourite projects. I think it's something that can be put off for another couple of years," Lovell said.

The recommendation to delay the depot project will be voted on at the next city council meeting, Aug. 9.