The Municipality of West Nipissing is planning to open a new dumping station and water filling station for recreational vehicles. When brought to council by municipal staff, an old issue returned — providing water for free to RV owners.
In June 2021, council turned off the taps at Verner’s arena. Residents had complained that too many travellers were helping themselves to too much water. There were reports of people leaving with truck-size containers of water, and even 200-litre tanks were filled with free water from the public tap, people alleged.
See: West Nipissing council turns off Verner’s public tap
But taxpayers and councillors know that water isn’t free, and West Nipissing ratepayers pick up the bill for those thirsty travellers.
This is why when the proposal for a new dumping and filling station came to council, some were concerned.
The proposed location for the new site — which won’t be built this year, most likely construction will occur in 2024 — is off Floral Street, between the Comfort Inn and the Tremblay Chevrolet car lot. That’s where the RVs will enter, then take a right onto Bridge Street.
The shoulder of Bridge Street will be widened to accommodate the dumping and filling station. Construction is estimated to cost around $20,000.
As for the water, “we’re seeing a lot of misuse,” with public taps, staff noted, and complaints from residents are common, particularly regarding the current filling station at the corner of Coursol Road and John Street, along the fence of Goulard Park.
With a new location comes the option to upgrade the water taps to a pay-to-pump model. A lot of municipalities have removed these stations completely, but West Nipissing feels it’s a service worth providing for tourism.
“They were problematic,” noted councillor Kris Rivard, “so I would strongly support having some kind of payment method.”
Council agreed and it will set rates at a future meeting.
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
