In an effort to clean up the community and make use of the proliferation of deer droppings an enterprising entrepreneur from Manitoba has come up with a plan to clean up Fort Frances while generating extra power.
The concept, dubbed Pelletonne, revolves around the idea of incinerating deer waste in a retrofitted outdoor wood burning furnace. It’s designed to consume at least one tonne of deer pellets per week with year round operation. The Company responsible is ODT (Oh Deer Trucking) which is owned and operated by 28 year old Flatu Lent – a Finlander who for the past five years has been collecting deer waste in Manitoba and Saskatchewan for disposal in Deer Lake MB.
Lent and his company have stepped forward to propose shifting deer dung collected out west to the new Pelletonne furnace here in Fort Frances. Lent envisions delivering heat to the civic center as a pilot project using a boiler system and with manpower supplied by public works staff. The Pelletonne would be fed on an every four to six hour basis 24 hours a day very much like an outdoor wood burning furnace. While not under consideration yet, the forced air option, though more expensive to install, is said to produce an even more efficient dry heat that channels through a “Febreeze Chamber” prior to exiting the Pelletonne.
It has been suggested that the entire Civic Centre Complex could be heated this way with no need for gas or electric heating elements. Says Lent, “your vacant OPP station could easily be converted to a deer pellet storage facility so the logistics of supply are absolutely perfect here!”
Collection would occur much like the blue box recycling program with local residents collecting deer waste and putting out their brown box every second week. Oh Deer Trucking would then contract with the Town to pick up and deliver all brown box material to the former OPP site for storage. According to Flatu Lent this initiative might also provide a boost to the local tourism industry as more deer could be encouraged to enter town and leave their valuable waste behind.
Promotional brochures and perhaps a new website and Facebook page could highlight local Deer Crossings, deer feeding stations, and deer sanctuaries located all over town including in the former mill facilities and the Shevlin Wood Yard. In an interesting development and backed by the scientists at DLC (Deer Laboratories of Canada) the ODT plan may also incorporate a sound element to the process as deer have been found to eat more and thus produce more waste when listening to music from classical composers like Schubert, Mozart and Beethoven. Lent suggests that the overnight yard music would not only encourage the animals but also give Fort Frances an extra dose of class.
Reached by phone K. Indanuts, Chief financial Officer of ODT says Lent is what he calls an innovation juggernaut, and when he says this is a can’t miss opportunity for Fort Frances he knows exactly what he’s talkin about. Says Indanuts, “it sure smells like a winner here!”
Ever the diplomat, but sounding a little hesitant to proceed Town Engineer Travis Rob said of Mr. Lent “He’s dung a good job with his presentation but proceeding any further will be a waste of time.”
