Done Deal: Supervisors approve Cox Sanitation Agreement

SIGOURNEY- After months of discussion, the Keokuk County Supervisors have reached finality with regards to the future of the Keokuk County Recycling Facility. At a special meeting of the board held on Friday, June 27, the Supervisors unanimously voted to approve a contract with Cox Sanitation to operate the County’s Recycling Facility. The contract is due to go into effect immediately, though overall implementation could take some time.

Under the contract, Keokuk County will pay Cox Sanitation $5,800 per month to operate the facility, a figure that includes overall management of the facility, as well as hauling of garbage/recycling. That figure also includes some profit for Cox Sanitation.

“You don’t contract with somebody for their cost because you’re going to end up with poor service and a poor contractor,” Supervisor Chair Mike Hadley said. “You can’t run business on your cost,” he added.

The facility will, for at least the next six months, continue to be operated as it has in the past. That means that discussion on a potential user fee on garbage of 10 cents per pound has, for the time being, been postponed.

As for staffing of the facility, Rachel Ament, the current operator of the recycling center, is an employee of Waste Management. As Cox Sanitation is the new operator of the facility, Keokuk County has no authority to require that she be hired on by Cox. Hadley reiterated to Ament during a regular meeting of the Supervisors on July 1 that the uncertainty she had regarding employment was unfortunate and not a direction the Supervisors wanted necessarily wanted to go, but ultimately had no choice but to pursue. He advised her to be in contact with Cox Sanitation.

“We’re sorry it came to this. It’s not a reflection on you. We’ve received nothing but positive praise for you,” Hadley said to Ament.

For more on this story, catch the July 3 edition of the News-Review.