The McDonald County Recycle Center in Noel currently has a negative balance, which led one alderman to suggest it might need to be shut down. Mayor Lewis Davis, however, believes the recycling center should break even in the next three to four months.
The recycling center is located in a building the city of Noel owns at 801 S. Kings Highway. It is run by three part-time workers whose salaries are paid in part by Region M, a solid waste management agency for six counties including McDonald. The city of Noel has to request each year for Region M to fund those salaries, Davis said.
Davis said he is on the Region M board and every year the board has applicants for funds. Applicants have to fill out a 16-page form saying what they need the money for. Awards are based on a point system. Funds will be awarded in February.
Nancy Irish, collector for the city of Noel, said in September the recycle center brought in $3,530, and in October it brought in nothing. She explained the facility does not bring in a certain amount every month. Sometimes the price of recyclables may cause loads to be held back until the price goes up.
"If the product is high, they may sell more than one load, and other months they may hold it until the price goes up," she said.
The recycling center was previously run by Shannon Gravette of Southwest Sanitation, but her company went out of business overnight in May, according to Davis. Irish said the city had been splitting payments between itself and Gravette, but now that it is running the recycling center itself, the city does not have to share that income.
Asked why the recycling center has a negative balance, Davis said it is because of the way it had been handled previous to the new council and mayor taking over in April. He declined to explain how things had been handled previously.
"The way things are going now, in three or four months, we should be on a break-even basis," he said. "It's taken us a little time to get our funding back from Region M, and some of our truckloads were held back waiting for higher cardboard prices."
A phone call to treasurer Jenna Rossi to determine the exact balance of the recycling center was not returned before an early deadline on Monday.
General News on 11/23/2017