Floyd County supervisors discuss but don’t change county waste collection site hours

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Floyd County Board of Supervisors is discussing potential changes to the hours at the county trash collection site it provides for rural residents, but any decisions are likely awaiting the hiring of a new county engineer who would manage that site.

The beginning of the discussion goes all the way back to January 2019, when site worker Karen Smith sent a message to the county engineer suggesting some potential change options, including adding Mondays to the open schedule, closing on Saturdays, and adjusting the daily hours to open earlier.

Then-county engineer Dusten Rolando brought the subject to the supervisors in June this year, but no decision was made to change hours at the time.

The site is currently open from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays, and 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. The site, located at ​​2090 Packard Ave., southwest of the Floyd County Fairgrounds, is available for rural residents of the county to drop off household trash and recyclables.

Smith suggested several options, with most of them adding open hours on Mondays and all of them reducing either the number of Saturdays or the hours on Saturdays that the site would be open. The options she listed were:

• Mondays through Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and alternating Saturdays, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. every other week.
• Mondays through Fridays, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturdays only during summer months, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Mondays through Fridays, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays 8 a.m. to noon.
• Tuesdays through Fridays, 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays 8 a.m. to noon.

When the topic was discussed in June, Rolando said he had no preference and the decision was up to the supervisors. but he noted that many people use the site on Saturdays or later in the afternoon on weekdays.

Although the supervisors discussed the options with Smith over the phone during their workshop meeting Monday morning, Supervisor Chair Linda Tjaden said the topic was not on Tuesday’s regular meeting agenda as an action item.

“At this point it’s status quo,” Tjaden said. “I do believe we need to get the new county engineer here. Let that person weigh in on it, too. So I think for right now, let’s just keep it the way it is and we can further analyze it in the future.”

Supervisors Tjaden and Roy Schwickerath both said they would likely not favor changes that increase the total number of hours open at the collection site, because that would increase costs that were not budgeted for.

Brian Pickar, assistant to the engineer, said a report on recent use of the collection site shows 50 to 60 dropoffs in the current Tuesdays through Fridays, and 100 or more dropoffs on Saturdays.

Tjaden said she hopes that when people hear the board is discussing the hours that the people who use the site will contact board members with their opinions.

Also at the workshop meeting Monday morning, the supervisors:

• Discussed a potential job listing for the new county engineer position, as well as a more comprehensive job description for people who request more information. The intent is to post the job opening after formal approval at today’s (Tuesday) regular board meeting, with an application deadline of Nov. 19.

• Discussed a job listing for a temporary county engineer position. Rolando, the former engineer, has offered to work on a temporary basis to help set up the county engineering and secondary roads department budget for the new fiscal year.

• Heard a report from County Auditor Gloria Carr that an audit of the recent city and school board election came back at 100% accuracy.

The Secretary of State office picks one precinct and one race from each county for a hand-count audit. Carr said. In Floyd County it was the Charles City mayoral race and the Trinity Methodist Church polling site.

The hand count of each ballot, done by three county residents, matched the numbers reported by the ballot-scanning machine exactly, Carr said.

“Every post-election audit we have had has matched 100% accuracy,” she said, adding that it’s important for people to know that because of rumors that voting machines produce inaccurate results or that they can be tampered with.

• Heard that the temporary redistricting committee that will work on setting up Floyd County voting precincts using the new census population date will hold its first meeting at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 11, in the district courtroom at the courthouse. Once Charles City and the county set up their precincts, then the state Legislative Services Agency will divide the county into three new supervisors districts.

County residents approved dividing the county into supervisor districts at a special election held earlier this year.