region of halton; mike cluett

What a crazy week its been in Milton.  After two full days of freezing rain & snow, many parts of Milton were left in the dark as power lines were damaged due to the weather.  Many of us in wards 1, 6, 7 & 8 were spared the trouble of the long term power outage, there were pockets of darkness in the rural areas of town.

Over the last few days I have met with many of you to talk about the challenges we faced and what can be done in the future to ensure that in case this does happen again, we are going to be better prepared going forward.

Was it a perfect process? Not at all.  There were some issues regarding communication from Milton Hydro that I feel were addressed quickly and if you followed them on Twitter and their website, they did improve as the work continued connecting people back to the grid.

Many thanks goes to our field workers at Milton Hydro for their hard work and dedication to get the power back up as quickly as possible. From their most recent account it looks like almost everyone is back up and running.

With all of this in mind the Halton Region has decided to temporarily lift the 3 bag limit until January 31st so that homeowners affected by the ice storm can get their household waste out & aid in the clean up of broken branches around their properties.

From the Halton Region website

In order to assist with clean-up efforts after last weekend’s ice storm, Halton Region is lifting the three-bag limit for garbage pick-up, allowing households to place as much as six bags of garbage for collection on their scheduled collection day until January 31. Brush debris will also be picked up on the same day as garbage from January 6-31 in designated urban areas. For rural areas, Halton Region is coordinating additional resources.

Until January 31, residents and contractors can also drop off brush debris at the Halton Waste Management site free of charge. Large bins are also available at Lowville Park and Ella Foote Hall for residents to bring brush and wood from downed trees.

“I want to thank residents across the Region for their patience as we continue to work to clean up after the storm,” said Gary Carr, Regional Chair. “Halton is a compassionate community and I also want to thank the many staff from the local municipalities, councillors, utilities and the hundreds of volunteers who have gone above and beyond to help their communities.”

Storm clean-up is expected to take several weeks and crews will work each day to collect as much debris as possible. However, due to the volume of brush to be collected it will take time and all debris may not be picked up in one collection. In order to assist with the clean-up, residents are asked to pile branches with a maximum of 7.5 centimetres (3 inches) in diametre and 2 metres (6.5 feet) in length on their regular garbage day.

For more information about Regional efforts related to the ice storm, please visit www.halton.ca/severeweather.

The Regional Municipality of Halton serves more than 500,000 residents in the City of Burlington, the Town of Halton Hills, the Town of Milton, and the Town of Oakville. Halton Region is committed to meeting the needs of its residents through the delivery of cost-effective, quality programs and services, including water and wastewater; Regional roads and planning; paramedic services; waste management; public health; social assistance; children’s and seniors’ services; housing services; heritage programs; emergency management and economic development. For more information, dial 311 or visit Halton Region’s website at www.halton.ca.