Vernon’s current recreational vehicle sani-dump station is moving across town.
The city will spend up to $175,000 to build an RV sani-dump in the 6400 block of Tronson Road on a five-acre parcel of city-owned property.
The city has a long history of providing RV sani-dump services and over time, it has moved to a number of locations within the city. It was once situated on 25th Avenue adjacent to the Vernon Water Reclamation Center; the former Vernon Civic Arena parking lot; the 33rd Street Civic Memorial Park site; and finally, to its current location at the Kin Park lands site on 43rd Avenue, which was resolved to be a temporary location more than two years ago in April 2021.
The city received 20 expressions of interest from individuals interested in creating a new station while administration continued to look at alternative sites within the community. No submissions were received from the private sector.
To be considered a suitable site for the sani-dump, it had to be a long-term solution, have minimal impact to the surrounding community, be easily accessible for large recreational vehicles, have services close by and have adequate space to provide at least two dumping stations.
“The current temporary location of the RV sani-dump has functioned well at this location; however, it has resulted in a number of complaints from residents on the south side of 43rd Avenue across from the facility,” said Sean Irwin, city utilities manager. “The RV sani-dump at this location was also originally planned to be temporary and was not included as part of the Kin Park concept planning process.”
Staff was only able to identify one site that would meet the sani-dump criteria, its property on Tronson Road which is currently used by city operations as a snow storage area and materials transfer site.
The sani-dump would use approximately one acre of the site across from the regional airport, leaving the remaining four acres for its current use.
“Operations is confident that the remaining four acres will be sufficient for future snow storage requirements provided the sani-dump facility could be converted to additional snow storage area if required,” said Irwin. “The proposed site could also accommodate four dumping stations, significantly reducing vehicle wait times.”
The $175K price tag will include a gravel surface, concrete lane dividers, signage, four dumping stations, engineering and contingencies.
Construction is slated to begin sometime this year with the new sani-dump to be ready to open in late May 2023.
City staff is also investigating alternative or additional honour system payment methods that can be used at the sani-dump and will report back to council by December.
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