By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle 

Oliver has come up with a solution to their puzzle of where to store pallets for the incoming Organic Waste Collection Program. 

The town will install a pallet storage structure in the town’s public works yard, to avoid increasing costs of other methods of storage associated with their need to store countertop kitchen bins. 

The Organic Waste Collection Program has been in the works since 2019 and has become somewhat of a puzzle for town staff. 

“Most of the staff involved in the project in 2020 have since moved on from the Town so current staff have done their best to piece together the history of the project as not all project documents can be found in Town records,” explained Adam Goodwin, the town’s project coordinator. 

As a result of this piecing together, the town had to make some decisions at their Nov. 18 meeting to access funds and agree to an alternative cost-saving storage solution for the countertop bins that will be a part of the program. 

The countertop kitchen catchers, which will be provided to around 2,600 community members to collect their organic waste in, will arrive on a number of pallets. 

But the town does not have an effective way of storing them.  

Goodwin notes that there were multiple suggested solutions to storing these pallets, such as storing them outside, or renting a shipping container. 

Those options, Goodwin explains, would either reflect badly on the town, such as storing them outside and risking delivering dirty or damaged kitchen catchers to residents. Or it would cost more for no long-term benefit, such as renting a sea can which they would have to return after.  

The original plan was to store the containers in various town-owned spots. But town staff would have to unload individual pallets by hand. This option would cost the town approximately $860 in staff time to offload the pallets each time, plus other costs such as the use of town vehicles. 

So, the town agreed the most cost-effective solution was to install a pallet storage structure in the town’s public works yard for approximately $4,000. It will be used to store the pallets during this project but would also be a permanent installation that the Public Works Department will continue to use after the project is complete. 

The town moved unanimously to transfer $4,800 from the Town of Oliver Solid Waste Reserve for the purchase and installation of this permanent solution. The total is $4,000 plus a 20 per cent project contingency. The reserve has room for this as it currently sits at $375,000. 

Due to the puzzling history of the project, the town also still required a resolution from Council authorizing the use of the Solid Waste Reserve for use of the self-funded portions of the project. 

The provincial grant for the project is $22,000 from the province and Oliver is required to contribute at least $11,000 towards the grant and up to $63,200. 

The town agreed to transfer the full $63,200 to complete the project. The total costs for the project are $43,000 plus $20,000 in staff time. 

The cost breakdown for the project is as follows: Education, including advertisements, pop-up engagement activities and participation at community events costs $8,000. The household kits, including countertop kitchen catchers, printing schedules, packets, and bin stickers will cost $43,000. 

Staff time amounts to $20,000 and they have added a 20 per cent project contingency of $14,200. Therefore, the total anticipated expenses are $85,200. 

The program is set to begin collecting organic waste by April 2025.  For more information on the program see oliver.ca/organics.