Hot topics have council moving to larger location Monday

Monday’s Chatham-Kent council meeting will be held at a local convention center with a big public turnout expected for discussions of the Dresden landfill proposal and other hot topics.

Article content

The meeting will be held in the grand ballroom of the John D. Bradley Center at 6 p.m., a municipal release said.

Article content

A report on the controversial proposed landfill and regenerative recycling project on Irish School Road, less than a kilometer north of Dresden, is on the agenda.

Staff will summarize municipal submissions to the Environmental Registry of Ontario about a proposal by Mississauga-based York1 Environmental Waste Solutions Inc. to create an eight-hectare (20-acre) landfill with 1.62 million cubic meters of waste capacity on a 35-hectare ( 86-acre) site with a maximum fill rate of 365,000 tons a year, an average of 1,000 tons daily.

The company also proposes to develop a regenerative recycling facility at the same Irish School Road site, about 800 meters from Dresden, to accept up to 6,000 tonnes daily of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste and 30,000 tonnes of unprocessed soils.

Article content

Council is on record opposing the project, and has detailed its concerns in a letter to Ontario Environment Minister Andrea Khanjin.

Council also will vote on a recommended new flag policy, including creating a new community flagpole at the Civic Center in downtown Chatham where flags can be raised temporarily. It says the new pole should go near King West and Second streets, away from where the Canadian, Ontario and municipal flags will be flown permanently near Civic Centre’s front entrance.

Controversy erupted over flag raisings in Chatham-Kent when North Kent Coun. Rhonda Jubenville moved in April 2023 to limit flag-flying to the Canadian, provincial and municipal flags at city hall. She said her motion was prompted by the lack of municipal response to a local anti-abortion group’s request to raise its flag. Council defeated the motion at its next meeting.

Jubenville also is scheduled to move Monday for a review of Chatham-Kent. ward boundaries.

And the issue of urban backyard chickens will also be discussed, as council receives an information report on various options.

[email protected]

Share this article in your social network

pso1