E-mail: spencer@smunet.net

SOLID WASTE DIVISION

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General Information
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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SOLID WASTE SUPERINTENDENT
Kent Herbold
3101 West 18th Street - Spencer, IA 51301 - Phone: 712/580-7270

GENERAL INFORMATION

Have you ever heard the saying.... "ITS A DIRTY JOB, BUT SOMEONE'S GOT TO DO IT!?!?" We really have to hand it to our workers. Spencer has a crew of dedicated personnel that help to keep our homes and City clean! It is a very big job that gets taken for granted by many of our citizens.

Our Solid Waste Division was formerly known as City Sanitation and was owned and operated by Hank Toebes. It was purchased by the City of Spencer in 1988 and became our Solid Waste Division which is under the direction of Blake Fonnesbeck. We have twelve employees that service our city with Kent Herbold as the Solid Waste Superintendent. Our City route drivers pick up approximately 1,000 tons of refuse per month. They also pick up an additional 30 tons of recyling materials. Another employee drives a semi to Graetinger three to four times daily to haul the accumulated garbage. Our recycling materials are taken to Complete Recovery. Our Solid Waste team also includes two part-time employees who take turns attending the Transfer Station office as support staff where they communicate with the truck drivers as needed, collect fees for White Goods (Appliances), Tires and Construction materials and answer any questions they may receive from the public.

Residentail garbage is picked up as follows: Monday-North of W 4th Street and West of Grand Avenue, Tuesday-North of East 4th Street and East of Grand Avenue, Wednesday South of east and west 4th Streets. Each route has approximately 650 stops. They begin when most of us are still enjoying a couple more hours of sleep.... at 4:30 A.M.! They also have over 500 commercial accounts and "specials" each month ( An example of a "special" would be delivering or unloading a dumpster a citizen may have ordered for a shingling job. )

It costs the City approximately $4,000.00 per month to operate and maintain one of our garbage trucks. This does not include the salaries of the drivers! We currently have three residential trucks, two commercial trucks, two semi's, a skid loader and a roll-off as our equipment. A full time mechanic services the vehicles at our Street Division's shop. We appreciate the work all of you do, and commend you for a job well done!

City of Spencer
418 2nd Avenue West
Spencer, IA 51301
712/580-7200
E-mail: spencer@smunet.net