Anyone feeling frustrated about changes coming to Guelph's waste system can take it out on their green bin.
Not that green bin. The squeezy kind.
The city recently ordered 150 stress-ball-type green bins, which are being sold at a cost-recovery price of $3.05 at City Hall.
A city spokesperson told me today there is no truth to the rumour the city had ordered one such squeezy bin for each household in the city, which would have been a $150,000 undertaking.
The city actually offers a surprising range of logo-bearing items, including blankets, golf balls and a seven-in-one ratcheting screwdriver.
Nice,now our city hall is a five and dime trinket store.
I am just wandering who is running the till,
our madame mayor or the C.A.O.
Posted by: frosty | January 25, 2012 at 05:13 PM
Anyone else sense that, 7-in-1 ratcheting notwithstanding, someone's being "screwed" in ways other than intended?
Posted by: Dis-a-Ray Antiques | January 25, 2012 at 08:50 PM
What exactly is "cost recovery" in this instance?! Please, tell me we got them for free. Hand them out to the first 150 people to come in to pay their taxes and never speak of them again.
Posted by: Craig Chamberlain | January 25, 2012 at 08:57 PM
Where the h_ll is this city going when we will debate over trinkets. Come on city hall wake up and smell the roses and start to deal with what your job is.
Posted by: Jim | January 25, 2012 at 10:05 PM
Wow, slow news day? Does the Merc have nothing better to report on?
Posted by: j | January 25, 2012 at 10:43 PM
not really, but the city shouldn't sell stuff like this, we aren't exactly a big touristy city or a world class city to warrant selling stuff like this. A city like ours doing something like this is just making a bold statement where they are trying to make themselves credible in the real world, but really they aren't they are just the whiny kid who craves attention.
Posted by: anonymous | January 25, 2012 at 11:03 PM
j,
We had mentioned on this blog in December about the city reportedly buying stress balls and the rumour at the time was it was one for every household, which as I noted would have cost approximately $150,000.
This blog post and related short story for the paper is just closing the loop on it.(For what it's worth, Canadian Press wrote a few days ago about Defence Minister Peter MacKay cancelling an order for stress balls. If CP can write about this use of taxpayers' money I don't see a problem with us doing the same)
Posted by: Scott Tracey | January 26, 2012 at 12:21 AM
Goodbye middle class. Buy a squeeze toy on the way out the door.
Au revoir, fragile environments. We needed our squeeze toys.
As for this green bin squeeze toy -- it's on the way to landfill (not so near) you. Hard to miss the irony.
Scott, thanks for bringing this forward. It speaks to an incoherence in direction at City Hall. Was an order for more of these cancelled, and if so, what was the cancellation fee?
Posted by: Craig Chamberlain | January 26, 2012 at 07:00 AM
It's now officially time to change the name of the city from Guelph to Stupid Ideas "R" Us.
What's worse is that these thing are made in China.
Please, please, for God's sake, somebody go and jiggle the handle.
Posted by: Doug | January 26, 2012 at 08:31 AM
Craig,
I put your questions, by email, to Stacey Hare at the city. This is her response:
Nope. This was a one-time purchase, and we ordered the minimum quantity 150. We have no plans to order more.
Posted by: Scott Tracey | January 26, 2012 at 09:29 AM
What are the odds that there would be $150,000 worth of stress balls rolling around city hall right now if Scott hadn't reported on the possibility in December?
Posted by: geo | January 26, 2012 at 06:12 PM
Farbridge, STOP SPENDING MONEY... WE PAY $5 mill a year in interest on our debt. Smarten the hell up!!!
Posted by: bschman | January 27, 2012 at 01:21 AM
I love my squeezy bin.
I give it a good squeeze whenever I'm frustrated with silly policies, silly councillors, or silly spending.
It's nearly worn out. I'll have to get a new one Monday.
Posted by: GrumpyOldCorporal | February 01, 2012 at 12:18 AM