Jefferson City yard waste drop-off site reevaluate plans after its first weekend open
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
Sunday at noon will conclude the second weekend the new temporary yard waste drop-off site in Jefferson City is in operation.
The site located at 708 Ellis Blvd. opens at 8 a.m. and is only open on weekends. Last week they received 228 total drop-offs from 163 different addresses.
The yard waste drop off site will be open on weekends until Jan. 6th and 7th.
There are 10 spots available at a time for people to bring and dump their yard waste.
Britt Smith, Operations Division Director for the Jefferson City Public Works Department says crews at the site were able to run operations smoothly, however, they did run into a staffing issue
"We felt pretty good about the operation, went pretty much how we expected it would. But, we did find that we need a little more staffing than we originally thought," said Smith.
Currently, the site is operated by a crew of three people. One running a machine transporting the waste, another monitoring safety, and another making sure only residents of the city are coming to drop off.
"It's [the site] not for commercial businesses. It's not for our friends who live out in unincorporated Cole County or the surrounding area. It is a service directly for our citizens," said Smith.
By tracking the number of site users, the city is able to get an idea of how many people would use the service if they decide to continue it.
Tracking numbers would also help the Public Works and Planning Committee in the future when making a request for a proposal if they do decide to bring in an outside contractor to handle operations or relocate to a permanent site.
On Thursday, the Jefferson City Public Works and Planning Committee had a meeting where they discussed potentially adding more staff and adding additional hours.
Some suggestions from the council that were brought to their attention by city residents were to have the site be open on Fridays and Mondays or extend the weekend hours, but limited staffing may make that difficult.
"Can we find other staff from other either other city employees or, or an outside contractor? Maybe, maybe we can do that and expand the hours. But right now, we're kind of limited by our people, said Smith.
Right now the city is using its existing employees to work the site.
The city has been trying to figure out what to do with yard waste services since early September.
Check back later for updates.
