"The Thompson Recycling Centre (TRC) has suspended service until further notice," says Valdine Flaming, communications officer for the City of Thompson, in an e-mail sent out at 5:06 p.m. today on a Friday afternoon.
"All recycling, including curb side pickup and drop off depots are suspended and residents are asked to store their rinsed and sorted recycling for the time being.
"It appears that food residue on recyclables has attracted rodents, resulting in a health and safety concern for workers at the TRC," she said. "Recycling operations will resume as soon as possible."
It is the third time in a slightly more than a year that the recycling centre has suspended curbside blue box and depot pick-ups. Operations were also suspended for a several weeks in two separate shutdowns in December 2008 and January 2009.
Mayor Tim Johnston, as recently as last week, said now is the time for the city to finally take ownership of the ongoing problems at both the Thompson Recycling Centre and Thompson Zoo.
Both have had, and continue to have, very visible problems - quite literally in some cases - over the last couple of years, and both are run by arms-length boards of directors.
Their payroll and certain other administrative functions are processed by the City of Thompson on their behalf, even though they are not city employees and oversight is limited, yet they both receive their major sources of funding annually from the city.
The Thompson Public Library is a third external organization set up and funded in much the same way as the Thompson Zoo and the Thompson Recycling Centre, but has not been in the spotlight for any substantive problems over the last couple of years.
The Thompson Recycling Centre has been shipping excess recyclable materials, including some of which came in contaminated, and some that ended up contaminated due to being exposed to the elements, to the local garbage dump, operated by the Local Government District (LDG) of Mystery Lake, off Highway 6, south of Thompson.
Deputy mayor Harold Smith, who also sits on the TRC board, said earlier this month preparations are underway to ensure the TRC is ready for recycling numbers to go up and even double in the near future.
