OrilliaMatters received the following letter from reader Frank Kreisz regarding the possibility of amalgamating the area into one municipality. Send your letters to [email protected]
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My spouse and I recently took a walk on the Orillia trail, close to the former Atlas Block property, and headed down Wilson Point Road to Wilson Point, on the shores of Lake Couchiching, an area that lies just outside of Orillia, in Severn Township.
Walking along the road I was surprised by the amount of garbage in the ditches, a beautiful and pristine natural wetland that is home to diverse flora and fauna.
The usual cups, cans, bottles and plastic bags can generally be anticipated on such walks, however coming across an old television and some discarded lumber was more disconcerting.
In these pages (OrilliaMatters) and the previous publication (Orillia Packet & Times), I have advocated municipal restructuring that would make it possible to provide services more effectively in many areas, garbage disposal clearly being one of them.
Amalganation would make it easier for area residents to drop off appliances, such as this TV and lumber, at the Orillia Landfill site, only a few kilometres away, where hazardous chemicals, used appliances, discarded lumber, compostable items, hazardous chemicals, batteries and so on, can be dropped off safely for proper and environmentally effective disposal or recycling, at no cost.
In the last round of municipal restructuring, in the late 90s, very little amalgamation transpired in Orillia, Severn, Ramara and Oro Medonte.
Perhaps now is the time for residents and politicians (although there would inevitably be less of the latter) to support such restructuring of these municipalities, so that not only garbage disposal, but recreation (i.e. MURF), libraries, professional firefighting, bylaw enforcement, to name a few, could be more cost effectively, efficiently and seamlessly managed for the benefit of all our area residents.
The recent back and forth acrimonious discussion around parking fees, both in downtown Orillia and the exceptional parking fees for “out of town” residents (Orillia and Ramara), is yet another example of the existing disjointed and ineffective patchwork of measures that generates consternation and frustration for all of us living in this area.
Frank Kreisz
Orillia
