Sheldon, Iowa — The Sheldon City Council plans to include from three to five other community members to help with interviewing the candidates for the City Manager position.
At Wednesday’s meeting Mayor Katricia Meendering noted that, “it’s hard to get people involved”. She said Wayne Barahona has responded positively when she contacted him but had no other names she could confirm. Council members also came to the meeting with no names they could announce. They will be contacting people for the position during the next few days. The interviews will take place Friday evening October Fifth and during the day Saturday October 6th. All five candidates selected by the council as finalists will be in Sheldon at that time.
In other action, the Council voted their approval to a new contract with both De Kruif Disposal and Schwarz Sanitary Service for the collection of solid waste and material to be recycled. The contract is basically the same as the previous arrangement. The terms of the contract requires the City to pay the haulers $l5.25 per month for each residence with a 25 cent raise each year beginning August 1, 2019. The haulers are required by ordinance to collect solid waste from each residence at least one time during each week and pick up recycling items two times per month.
The haulers report that the amount of recycled items has increased considerably since the public has been better informed about what can be recycled and when recycle pickups are scheduled. There was some discussion about increasing the number of recyling pickups, with council member Brad Hindt wanting to make the change immediately.
The haulers explained that such a change would add to their cost of operation, even though it would result in some reduction in the amount of garbage they would collect. They did emphasize that if any businesses have items to recycle they should make arrangements by calling their hauler.
The city ordinance requires that residences may use one 65 gallon container or two 32 gallon containers for garbage. The haulers reported that more and more people are using the larger containers that can be automatically dumped into their truck. The City hopes to require everyone to eventually use these containers. They have set a goal for the system to be fully automated by July 1, 2020.
The council also approved the hiring of Dakota Brown as a full -time employee on the Sheldon Community Ambulance Team. The previous full-time employee, Kevin Miller, had indicated that he would be available to fill the SCAT director position.
