Winneshiek County might put out more garbage dumpsters

The Winneshiek County Board has agreed to study a proposal to have additional garbage collection sites.

Currently there are dumpsters that collect garbage in six locations--Locust, Fort Atkinson, Ridgeway, Ossian, Kendallville and Bluffton.  County employees staff the operation of the dumpsters, which are available from 7:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. only on selected days of the month.

The program costs the county $150,000 a year, but County Board Chairman Les Askelson believes the money is well spent: "Everything has run quite well," he said on Monday.  Supervisors agree that having county personnel man the dumpsters has largely ended problems with unauthorized dumping.

But rural Decorah resident Paul Hunter had a question for supervisors on Monday--why, if his taxes were paying for the operation of the dumpsters, weren't there dumpsters readily available to all rural county residents?  Supervisor Bill Ibanez agreed with Hunter's point: "It deserves to be looked at," he said.

Hunter last year led a campaign to privatize the collection of garbage in rural areas.  But that campaign went nowhere, despite the public support Hunter says he received.  Since that was the case, he changed his tactics this year.  "Since I'm getting assessed for it, I deserve to get the service," said Hunter.  :It's a valid point," agreed supervisor John Logsdon.