By FINN HARTNETT

Staff writer

At a Marion City Council work session last week, Mayor Mike Powers hinted that recycling might be curbed in the near future.

Marion is a rare city where residents opt-in to recycle. The service costs $8 a month and is picked up once a week.

A bag of recycling also can be dumped at the transfer station for $5.

Trash pickup costs $10.50 a month and is similarly picked up once a week, but it is free to dump at the transfer station.

City administrator Mark McAnarney said 91 commercial and residential properties pay for the recycling service each month.

The city sells some recyclable material, but McAnarney said the service was running at a net loss.

“We’re losing money on it,” he said. “The people you sell it to won’t pay.”

Powers agreed the recycling system needed to change.

“I’m one of those people who do pay those eight bucks, but my perspective has changed,” Powers said. “There is a point where you have to do what makes sense monetarily. But for those of us who do want to recycle, it’d be nice if we had some kind of an option.”

Council member Tim Baxa suggested offering incentives such as half-off for the first year to get more residents to sign up.

Powers suggested installing recycling dumpsters around town so residents could dump their recycling instead of having it picked up.

Crews would have to visit only a few containers rather than every recycling home.

“You’d be talking two, three hours at the most, versus all day that we’re spending now,” Powers said.

Council member Zach Collett said dumpsters could be stored outside of stores downtown.

“I think you would cut down on some of that risk of people just dumping trash in there,” he said.

Powers said he had asked about buying dumpsters from the county, but the county did not want to sell them.

McAnarney spoke glowingly about the “one-arm bandits” owned by Emporia and Hillsboro — garbage trucks with robot arms that can lift and dump recycling and trash bins on the side of the road.

But Marion cannot afford such expensive equipment, he said.

In lieu of a more profitable program, Powers said, recycling might be scrapped altogether.

“It seems inevitable that we’re going to probably have to quit the city recycling program,” he said. “I’m just trying to be realistic here, and I’m one who does [recycle].”

McAnarney will bring recommendations to a future council meeting.

Other subjects discussed included proposals for a dangerous structures committee, new highway signs for Marion, and gifts to be given to city employees as holiday bonuses.

Work on the city building was highlighted as a potential issue.

Handicapped services are minimal. The automatic door does not work unless someone inside switches it on.

The building has no hot water, according to various council members, and the downstairs kitchen and bathrooms are in disrepair.

“This is a cool old building, but it’s not in great shape, and it’s not being very well maintained,” Powers said. “We don’t have anybody hired to clean it on a regular basis.”

Community enrichment director Margo Yates said she did most of the cleaning herself, although she has hired crews in the past.

Powers said the city might budget for custodial services for the building, and proposed a spring tour so the public could see its condition.

The council also proposed charging more to rent the city ballroom as a way to balance the books.

It is $100 to rent for a non-profit, $300 for Marion residents, and $400 for non-residents.