The Town of Creighton is still weighing options for the location of a needle disposal site.
At the May 23 town council meeting, council members and RCMP Sgt. Sean McPhee discussed the issue after McPhee presented council with the detachment’s monthly report.
In the past, the town has pursued having a public needle drop box at Creighton’s provincial building. There are drop boxes in the washrooms inside the building, but the drop box outside would provide an option for disposal outside of normal business hours.
McPhee said having a public drop box at the building, located near Creighton Community School, the Creighton Sportex and multiple recreation facilities, could be a safety risk.
“I think we want to put them in a place where kids won’t be stepping on needles. Let’s face it, the kind of people who need an outdoor drop box might not be the most responsible at making decisions. If they’re doing it there, do they all go in the bin? Do some end up on the ground?” he said.
McPhee proposed having the box at Bereskin Avenue instead, saying RCMP had received calls of discarded syringes in the area, adding there had not been reports of needles left behind near the provincial building.
Town officials said they had received a sole report of discarded needles as well, adding that the needles were used by a diabetic and not an intravenous drug user.
While neither council or RCMP said abandoned needles were a major problem in Creighton, McPhee said a disposal site should be up in Flin Flon.
“I think they’ll be up regardless, whether people want them or not. In Denare Beach, absolutely, there’s a big necessity for it. In Creighton, yes, but where do we put them?” he said.
Construction
Work has restarted on the town’s ongoing water and sewer replacement project.
Labour at the booster station and along Creighton Avenue is underway, including pipe replacement and some excavation.
The project began in spring 2017 with replacing pipes along Creighton Avenue and between the town’s water treatment plant to the booster station next to the Creighton Avenue and Main Street intersection.
Line replacements between Prince Street and Lamb Street will also be completed.
Sidewalk replacement and street repaving, which will be conducted by the provincial highways ministry, will commence once the pipe work is done.
“It’s already going. They’re putting together the temporary lines and they’ll start digging soon,” said Paula Muench, chief administrative officer for the Town of Creighton.
The project’s original finish date was November 2017, but a series of concerns with bedrock blasting and unforeseen poor weather caused the project to be delayed to the spring.
Doctor recruitment
Coun. Dan Hlady will be the town’s representative on a recently announced committee dedicated to recruiting doctors for the Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach area.
A similar committee started in Snow Lake, which saw the departure of the community’s only doctor earlier this year, inspired the committee.
Currently, only two full-time doctors employed by the Northern Health Region are located in Flin Flon, serving a catchment area of between 8,000 and 9,000 people. Locums fill a third physician position.
Coun. Darren Grant was selected as an alternate for the committee.
