The North Battleford Fire Department is reporting they are responding to even more calls for sharps pickups in the city this year.
At city council Monday night, fire chief Trevor Brice provided the latest numbers. He reported there were 84 calls for needle pickups for the first four months of 2019, compared to 11 for the same period in 2018.
The vast majority of pickups were in March and April. There were 37 calls in March and 43 calls in April. Brice reported that he knows the calls for May will be higher. “It’s got worse in May than in April. The calls continue to increase,” he said.
Most of the calls are coming from the central portion of the city, mainly the area between 100th and 110th Street south of 19th Avenue.
Mayor Ryan Bater asked if people are using the yellow drop off bins to safely dispose needles. Brice responded they are, yet calls continued to increase.
Brice added he has been speaking with the health authority, looking to make sure those boxes are in the right place.
Councillor Kelli Hawtin asked whether this same increase is being seen around the province and what others are doing. Brice said he would talk to his colleagues across the province to see how they were responding.
In speaking to reporters Mayor Bater acknowledged the numbers were something council was looking at closely.
“I’m encouraged to hear that our fire chief’s been having conversations with the ministry of health on that subject, and maybe we need to look at the locations of those boxes and whether we need more. The feedback I’ve heard from council tonight is we might be open to that. We have a lot of instances of sharps being left in homes and other locations and we want to ensure public safety. If that will help we’re open to it.”
