Carmeuse Communications

Tuesday, 17 February 2015 06:44

A meeting between Ingersoll delegates and the CEO of Carmeuse Lime & Stone in Brussels elicited mixed results.

INGERSOLL - Ingersoll staff members have returned from a trip to Carmeuse Stone & Lime's headquarters in Belgium.

Mayor Ted Comiskey along with Deputy Mayor Fred Freeman and Chief Administrative Officer, William Tiegert flew to Brussels for a day long trip.

Comiskey stated the purpose of the trip was to inform the head office of Carmeuse about the municipality's concern surrounding the location of the proposed Walker Landfill. The Walker proposal involves leasing a quarry owned by Carmeuse for use as a landfill site. Comiskey said the length of the lease term was not disclosed to them during their visit with the CEO of Carmeuse, Rodolphe Collinet. The meeting with Carmeuse revealed that the Walker landfill proposal involves Walker leasing the quarry from Carmeuse, "we're also concerned about the aftermath of the lease itself and when it runs out and what responsibilities are still held by Carmeuse and Walker," said Comiskey.

During the meeting Comiskey along with the two other delegates made a presentation on behalf of the Ingersoll community to Carmeuse appealing for the company to leverage their role in the landfill proposal. Comiskey called the meeting "respectful." Carmeuse sent a letter to the town after the meeting which will be sent to the Minister of the Environment. The contents of the letter--according to Comiskey-- expressed some of the concerns brought up at the meeting between the Ingersoll delegates and Carmeuse.

"The proximity, number 1 of the community of Ingersoll to the actual site itself, they were aware somewhat...but not when you were talking about in terms of meters and not kilometres or miles."

Comiskey had initially stated that the reason for the trip to Belgium was to inform Carmeuse's head office of the situation happening as he did not believe that Carmeuse's North American office was expressing the reaction to the proposal. At the meeting Carmeuse shook on a promise to open up the lines of communication between the company and the town.

Comiskey said the Carmeuse officials seemed surprised to hear that the community was opposed to the landfill. The opposition to the landfill has been well documented locally and nationally by the media since its proposal back in 2012.