Councilman Dan Brod, left, was presented with an appreciation plaque for his 19 years of service on the Blue Earth City Council. The plaque was presented by Mayor Rick Scholtes, right, at last Monday’s council meeting.

Two representatives of Waste Management went on the hot seat at last Monday’s Blue Earth City Council.

The council had requested someone from the company attend the meeting after having received numerous complaints about the pickup or lack thereof of recyclables in the city.

Waste Management also picks up garbage in the city, but that is an individual contract between residents and whatever garbage hauler they wish to use.

Recycling, however, is a contract between the city and Waste Management, and residents are billed for the service on their monthly utility bills.

Jay Nielsen and Matt Rydberg of Waste Management said they have had some staffing issues and shortages and that has resulted in some missed areas of town during recycling pickup.

“This is an industry-wide problem,” Nielson said. “But, we are seeing an improvement in resolving our staffing and it is getting better.”

Rydberg explained the situation should improve by the end of January when the company will be using some new technology.

“Every truck will have an onboard computer,” he explained. “Each driver will have to punch in when he picks up at each house. Or he will punch in there was no container to be picked up.”

Each household address will be on the computer and will need to be accounted for, the two said. They added they will be able to send a list of the pickups to the city by email, if they so desired.

“The people have not been satisfied with this service,” city councilman Glenn Gaylord said. “We are getting too many complaints.”

The Waste Management representatives said they will also try to have better communication with the city, when issues or mechanical problems arise that will delay pickup.

In other business at last Monday’s meeting, the council:

Voted to raise the city’s sewer rates for 2017 by 4.1 percent.

The current residential rate is $18.15 per month base charge, plus $5.43 per 1,000 gallons of usage. The new rate will be $18.89 per month base charge and $5.65 per 1,000 gallons of usage. Commercial rates will also increase by 4.1 percent, to $23.87 flat monthly rate and $6.97 per 1,000 gallons of usage.

City administrator Tim Ibisch said the raise is necessary because the sewer fund needs to be built up for the expenses involved with the wastewater treatment plant.

“We were at about a break even point this year,” Ibisch said., “until we bought a new clarifier for the plant.”

Authorized two change orders to the $1.7 million contract for the Sixth and Main Street reconstruction project.

One change order was for additional boring costs at six locations for installation of sanitary sewer lines, jet and televise another line and for fixing the water service line into the City Hall. Total amount of the change order was $11,737.

The other change order was for replacing the front steps at the City Hall. That amount came to $13,637, which was down from the original estimate of $23,735, city engineer Wes Brown said. However, Brown added the cost of new handrails for the steps is not part of the change order, and are estimated to cost between $3,800 and $4,000.

Awarded a bid for mowing city property to Schrader Enterprises of Wells after some discussion.

There two bids received and Schrader had the lower bid for mowing the 100.2 acres of city land that needs mowing.

Their bid was for $34,950, compared to $41,082 from More Than Mowing of Winnebago.

More Than Mowing has had the bid the past three years, and Schrader had the bid the three years before that.

Public Works director Jamie Holland said he was concerned about Schrader’s use of side discharge mowers, instead of rear discharge mowers.

Mike Schrader, who was at the meeting, said he would agree to invest in rear discharge mowers if the council granted him the contract.

They did. The contract is for one year, with a possible additional two year extension.

Also approved a new union contract with city Public Works employees.

The 3-year contract calls for a 4-percent wage increase in 2017, 3-percent in 2018 and 2.5 percent in 2019.

It also increases the amount of vacation time and makes vacation available earlier in employment, as well as addressing insurance coverage.

Also approved the new contract for the 2017 city audit. That contract calls for a fee of $24,600 for the city audit, which includes the audit of the liquor store, fitness center and other city entities.

Approved the hiring of a new employee for the city’s Public Works Department, upon a recommendation of Holland.

Ryan McGuire of Blue Earth was hired and is expected to start in two weeks.

Also approved the appointment of Ann Hanna to the Blue Earth Economic Development Authority to replace Bill Eckles who’s term expires this year.