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Thieves make off with 20-foot shipping container, a McLeese Lake recycling centre

McLeese Lake, Tyee Lake and Soda Creek Valley residents are disappointed and heartbroken: Forseth
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The Sea-Can (shipping container) that stores the McLeese Lake Recycling Depot was stolen last week. (Photo submitted)

Thieves went to great lengths recently to steal a modified 20-foot shipping container which served as a community recycling centre for rural residents just north of Williams Lake.

Cariboo Regional District (CRD) Area D director Steve Forseth said it believed late last week (Oct. 13 to 15) that someone drove up with the required equipment and drove off with the Sea-Can (shipping container) that stores the McLeese Lake Recycling Depot which is only open on weekends with an attendant at the recycling depot. There’s no attendant during the rest of the week and no video cameras on site.

“As you can imagine, the communities of McLeese Lake, Tyee Lake and Soda Creek Valley are profoundly disappointed and heartbroken that this has occurred, especially after they have asked for this recycling depot in McLeese Lake for many, many years,” Forseth told Black Press Media. “I am hoping that we will find a way to get the recycling depot back to McLeese Lake.”

Forseth said he is in conversation with CRD staff about what the next steps look like but he is hoping that they can replace the recycling depot, subject to available funding in the CRD’s solid waste management service budget which looks after garbage/recycling in the rural areas as well as in 100 Mile House/Wells plus contracts with Quesnel/Williams Lake.

Forseth noted he will be raising the matter with the CRD finance/budget committee during a budget meeting Thursday.

The recycling service has been in the community since 2019.

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Angie Mindus

About the Author: Angie Mindus

A desire to travel led me to a full-time photographer position at the Williams Lake Tribune in B.C.’s interior.
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