Yorkregion.com - Georgina - Weed harvest starts in August, town told
Weed harvest starts in August, town told
Georgina
May 21, 2008 08:36 PM
By: John Slykhuis
The summer aquatic weed harvesting program will start in mid-August on a stretch of Cook’s Bay shoreline from Rayners Road south to the canals.
Last week, council agreed to hire Inland Aquatics again to handle the job, budgeted to cost about $175,000.
Inland has demonstrated their proactive approach to weed harvesting including yearly summaries, proposed technologies to increase efficiency and working with the conservation authority and the town, town operations manager Bob Fortier wrote in his report.
Inland has held the contract since 2004.
The contract provides for one sweep of the shoreline, as well as a cleanup of a heavily built up area of material just south of Crate Marine.
With the extensive drought, last year’s weed buildup was light in comparison to other years, Mr. Fortier said.
As a result, the cost of the harvest was just $84,500, well short of the $175,000 budget.
The cost in 2006 was $165,824, but 2005 had a heavy accumulation of floating weeds so the costs jumped to $239,797, higher than the previous record of $232,506 in 2003.
The 2004 season was not completed because of low water levels and poor weather.