Shown are members of the Leesburg Town Council. From left are Mitch Rader, Tom Moore and Christina Archer. Photo by Jackie Gorski.

By Jackie Gorski
Times-Union

LEESBURG – Recycling was a topic of discussion at the end of the Leesburg Town Council meeting Monday, Jan. 9.

The Kosciusko County Solid Waste Management Board voted last year to close all nine unsupervised residential recycling drop-off sites in Kosciusko County after Dec. 31.

Resident Brad Bibler asked the Leesburg Council if anyone had gotten hold of a company about recycling.

Clerk-Treasurer Mike Searfoss said he talked with Borden Waste-Away and, without a townwide contract, they would need to know how many households would be interested in their services.

A survey was put out to see how many households would be interested in recycling services and Searfoss said more people said no than yes of the people that did respond. Searfoss said one resident responded they were interested if there was no cost, but wasn’t interested if there was.

Councilman Tom Moore said he had a conversation with a resident that was not aware recycling services came at a cost.

Council President Christina Archer said she received an email from Waste Away Group, which she believes is the overarching group Borden is part of. The email gave “a whole bunch of rates” for services like industrial pickup and recycling services. The email discussed how the bill would be handled as a quarterly bill of $24 for residential service.

“Plus, this is what they didn’t tell you. There would be an approximately 20% surcharge to that $8 a month. It could be something in the range of that. It covers extra gasoline and fuel charges,” she said.

Moore said part of the discussion is if recycling services are going to be mandatory or voluntary.

Archer said it’s amazing how much recycling builds up and she misses recycling services all ready. She said she believes it will make the townwide trash pickup day in June and garage sale days more important.

No decision was made Monday.

In other business, the Council:

• Approved Archer to stay as president and Moore to stay as vice president for 2023.

• Approved the appointment of Doug Jones as an alternate snow plow driver for 2023.

• Learned Street Commissioner Craig Charlton wants to get quotes to microseal the paved streets. He hopes to have the quotes by March.

• Learned Derek Tenney, of Tenney & Sons, should have a repair and maintenance schedule for the sewer pumping station for the council next month.

• Learned Charlton wants to get a quote to have a video of the remaining section of the center alley storm drain made.