Municipality of the County of Inverness
News

Operational Updates: May 6 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic and provincial State of Emergency has impacted everyone in the province in different ways, including how municipalities conduct business. The staff of the Municipality of the County of Inverness are working diligently every day to provide services to residents of Inverness County during this challenging situation. Due to the Chief Medical Officer of Health’s orders under Nova Scotia Health Protection Act, Municipal operations have been temporarily modified to ensure the health and safety of staff and the public.

The decisions to modify Municipal services were not made lightly and were based on the directives provided by national and provincial health experts. The Municipality apologizes for the inconvenience and thanks residents for their understanding. Please monitor the Municipality’s website at www.invernesscounty.ca for ongoing updates.

Recycling

To ensure the safety of employees, and to remain compliant with provincial public health directives during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Municipality of the County of Inverness has temporarily closed the Strathlorne Recycling Facility.

The temporary closure was based on several factors.

  • Unlike solid waste collection, recycling was not listed as an essential service by the Province of Nova Scotia.
  • The recycling facility has limited space that does not allow staff to maintain the mandatory six foot physical distancing requirement while sorting recycling material.
  • There is a limited supply of personal protective equipment.
  • It is important to prevent the potential spread of COVID-19 during the handling and sorting of blue bag/recycling material.

While the depot is temporarily closed to the public, residents now have two options for recyclables/blue bags:

  1. You can continue to put out your recyclables/blue bags for collection. However, those blue bags will no longer go to Strathlorne to be sorted and separated for recycling. For now, all blue bags will be stored at Municipal facilities.
  2. You can, choose to store recyclables/blue bags until Municipal operations return to normal. If you can safely store recyclables, the Municipality asks that you slowly release your materials over several weeks when the Recycling Facility reopens.

While the facility is closed to the public, it will be open for commercial cardboard collection on Tuesdays and Fridays from 7:00 am to 4:00 pm (closed from 12:00 to 1:00pm for lunch).

Please note that Enviro Depots located in the County of Inverness are operated independently by Divert Nova Scotia and are not Municipal operations. Contact your local Enviro Depot for more information on hours of service.

The Municipality shares the concern of residents for both the environment as well as the ongoing health of the communities of Inverness County and looks forward to resuming regular operations when it is possible to do so in a safe manner. Please remember to sort and thoroughly clean all recyclables before placing them in bags.

Kenloch Transfer Station

On March 25th, the Municipality closed the Kenloch Transfer Station to the general public. The Municipality originally planned to keep the facility open throughout the State of Emergency, but some visitors to the site would not follow physical distancing guidelines while onsite despite frequent reminders and direction from Municipal staff. This presented a clear danger to the health and safety of both visitors and staff, while putting the Municipality at risk of receiving fines for failure to comply with public health orders. Therefore, the decision was made to no longer allow the general public at the site. Registered contracting businesses are still allowed to drop off material at the Transfer Station but must follow physical distancing guidelines while visiting. Contractors are asked to call 902-787-3503 ahead of arrival to let staff know they are coming to the site. The Transfer Station is fully closed on Saturdays.

Spring Heavy Garbage Pickup

Municipalities across Nova Scotia are taking different approaches to heavy garbage collection. Some municipalities are postponing collection, others are expanding the types of material that can be placed in a black bag and several municipalities that have contacts in place with private sector companies for heavy garbage are moving forward with collection.

In Inverness County, Spring Heavy Garbage Pickup has been postponed until further notice due to physical distancing requirements and as a precaution to limit the potential exposure of COVID-19 to staff that are required to perform other duties such as addressing water and sewer infrastructure issues. It is imperative that the Municipality retains a staff complement that can respond to infrastructure emergencies that cause loss of water or sewer services to residents during the existing provincial State of Emergency. Residents are urged to store material until a Heavy Garbage Pickup can be organized.

Solid Waste Collection

Solid waste collection has been deemed an essential service by the Province of Nova Scotia and continues on a weekly basis. Residents should have their solid waste out the night before the day of collection. Green For Life (GFL) has been contracted by the Municipality to provide curb side collection and they are in the process of adjusting pick-up routes to improve efficiency. This could result in the timing of your solid waste collection changing to earlier or later in the day. For any questions or to report missed pick ups, please call GFL’s toll-free helpline at 1-888-863-1744.

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