Some Port au Port Peninsula residents refuse to pay for garbage cleanup

The Port au Port Peninsula community of Piccadilly Slant-Abraham's Cove will likely not be having a bulk garbage pickup this year because too many people haven not paid their fees.

It currently costs $130 a year for trash collection, and the community usually pays nearby Lourdes to take care of the pickup.

Built into that fee is a little extra for the yearly spring clean up, about $3,000 in total. However, Ray Skinner, service district chair for the area, said about 20 per cent of the 154 homes haven't coughed up the cash for the trash.

"It's getting very hard to say we have $3,000 put aside for spring cleanup when, right now, we are looking at not having enough money to cover Lourdes for just the weekly garbage cleanup," he said.

Skinner says the community is already in debt about $9,000 for unpaid fees, with some residents refusing flat out to pay their bill. 

He thinks that unless residents come up with the fees soon, there simply won't be a bulk spring cleanup this year. 

"Some of the residents have come in and have paid up the last two or three years. Some say they simply forgot," he said.

"There are some that are blatantly coming out and saying they are not paying it."