T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — A view of the entrance to the city of Marshalltown’s Compost Facility at 901 Woodland St. During Monday night’s meeting, members of the city council asked Public Works Director Heather Thomas several questions about the staffing, hours of operation and finances of the facility.

During one of three budget related discussion items on Monday night’s meeting agenda, Marshalltown Public Works Director Heather Thomas brought the city council up to speed on the financial outlook at the Compost Facility as the Fiscal Year 2026 budget is formulated.

Currently, Thomas is in the process of hiring seasonal staff to run the facility with plans to open on April 1 as in past years.

“Last year, we struggled with staffing, so we want to be sure we’re able to communicate appropriately, when we’re hiring, on the hours of operation of our facility,” she said.

So far, there have been no formal requests to change the operating hours, so she plans to continue being closed from Monday through Thursday, open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays, open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and open from noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays.

As she opened up the floor to questions, Councilor Melisa Fonseca asked Thomas to explain the deficit from the 2024 season and whether that had been a consistent pattern. Thomas said they were no longer able to burn some of the material they took in and had to hire the chipping and hauling work, which constituted an added expense, and she added that after years of running at annual deficit, she was asked by a previous city administrator to balance the budget and enacted changes to both increase revenue and decrease expenses as a result — the most notable of which was going from being open seven days a week to three. For FY2026, Thomas predicted a balanced budget.

In response to another question, Thomas said there is only one employee working at the facility at a given time, and Fonseca wondered if they had been able to keep workers as the maximum wage is only $10 an hour. Thomas has also heard from Street Superintendent Rick Legg that some employees are unsure if they will continue due to the hours and low wages, and she said there are weekends when one person is scheduled for all three days.

“I’m just asking on the staffing because I was thinking that there was an individual who was working the 19 hours per week and getting up every single weekend for the April to December and getting paid $10 an hour, which would be a gross ending salary of $7,000 to give up your weekend every single weekend from April to December, so I was just thinking about this individual,” Fonseca said.

Currently, Thomas said they try to hire three employees for each season, but last year, they only had two for a portion of it. Fonseca asked if the wages could potentially be increased to make the position more appealing, and Thomas conceded that the feedback they’ve received indicates that the pay rate makes the job unattractive. She did, however, submit a request to the Human Resources department and City Administrator Carol Webb, and the starting rate has been bumped from $9 to $10 an hour as a result.

After describing himself as a “medium user” of the facility, Councilor Jeff Schneider said he wished it could be open more often but didn’t see it as feasible due to the current fees and usage rate. He also hoped the ongoing solid waste study would give the council a better idea of how other cities handle compost, but for the time being, he motioned to keep the status quo in place.

Fellow medium user and Councilor Barry Kell mentioned the possibility of flexing and being open additional hours during the “peak seasons” of spring and fall, and Thomas told the council she had heard of a desire for consistency from the public and could consider being open for a brief period during the week to accommodate intermediate users who don’t want to hold onto their material for too long. Because a substantial capital expense put the facility in the red for the 2024 season, Councilor and Mayor Pro Tem Mike Ladehoff wondered if there was anything similar on the horizon, but Thomas said the next major expense over $5,000 isn’t projected until FY2028.

“Would we have the funds to do another day, then?” Ladehoff asked.

She responded that they would have the fund balance to make it happen and had received an extremely low bid on chipping and hauling that freed up more money in the budget. Councilor Gary Thompson then asked about whether the work street department employees do at the facility is factored into the budget, and she said it was from a time and labor perspective but not from an equipment and material perspective.

Fonseca, who described herself as a less frequent user, wondered about instructions for residents as they arrive and whether signs with pictures in multiple languages would be beneficial as a way to cut down on sorting hours. Thomas said there had been a sign but only in English, and she would be open to adding it in a different language.

Fonseca then proposed an amended motion to include signage in the three most spoken languages in Marshalltown, and the amendment passed by a unanimous 7-0 vote. As the focus shifted back to the original motion, Thompson expressed concern about the low wages and suggested raising fees slightly, citing an instance when the facility was closed because all three employees were either sick or out of town.

He, Ladehoff and Webb agreed that she could further explore the pay grade and the potential of adjusting it. During the public comment period, Mark Eaton, referencing a recent story in the T-R about the Compost Facility’s deficit, called it “a technical deficit” due to the aforementioned capital purchase of about $35,000. Without it, the facility would have been about $16,700 in the black, which Eaton suggested using to increase wages.

“Also, the Enterprise Fund has a balance of $241,000, and you’re gonna burn that down to $200,000. So the place isn’t broke,” he said. “But to Councilor Fonseca’s suggestion, knowing that she’s not a user of the facility, when you get there, the sign is too late because the load is on the truck. So if we could use the Water Works to do some more proactive mailing in the multiple languages — here’s how you use the Compost Facility or whatever the other things are that we want to use — every town I’ve ever lived in, I got a newsletter in my water bill. And so this is a way to get that done.”

Webb said Water Works would allow space in the mailer to include educational materials and thought it was a good idea. The amended motion then passed by a unanimous 7-0 vote.