Norwood slams bottle depot's move across from school
Residential neighbourhood no place for busy depot, say residents
CBC News
Posted: Jan 13, 2012 10:25 AM MT
Last Updated: Jan 13, 2012 11:23 AM MT
Bottle collector Dale Ferris says many people rely on the Univer depot, but disagrees with moving it across the street from Norwood School. (CBC)
Two inner-city communities in Edmonton are preparing to appeal a city decision allowing a bottle depot to move across the street from their school.
"I'm very ticked off," said McCauley resident Meredith Porter. "We don't want to have large collection of people waiting to access the bottle depot when it opens right across from our elementary school."
People in Norwood and McCauley say they will appeal a decision allowing the Univer bottle depot to move two blocks west from its current spot on 111th Avenue at 93rd Street, where it's been for more than a decade.
The new location is across the busy avenue from Norwood School.
"A bottle depot does not belong in a residential neighbourhood," said Cris Basualdo.
"To move it across from a school...to me is completely ridiculous," she said. "That (department of) planning has approved this is just bizarre."
Basualdo worries the depot will hurt a neighbourhood already dealing with numerous inner-city issues.
"Certainly that will impact the ability to bring families to the neighbourhood when the area around our elementary school becomes even more unsafe than it currently is."
The depot brings an "atmosphere of disorder," with lineups of bottle pickers and garbage strewn about, said Basualdo.
The neighbourhood already has more than it's share of shelters and services for poor people, said Rob Stack, with the McCauley Community League.
He believes bottle depots should be located in light industrial areas.
However bottle collector Dale Ferris said many people in the neighbourhood depend on bottle picking to make their living.
Some already feel hassled for using busy transit buses to get bags of bottles to the depot, he said.
But Ferris agreed that moving across the street from a school isn't right.
Children don't need to see that, he said.
The owners of Univer wouldn't speak on the record, but said they see nothing wrong with the new location.
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