The Columbia City Council is assessing options for rebuilding the recycling facility that was destroyed in an Easter Sunday tornado — a project expected to take more than two years. In the interim, new Utilities Director Erin Keys is considering potential short-term solutions such as processing the materials in Columbia and transferring them to a nearby city.
Keys said the department is assessing what, if anything, can be salvaged from the wreckage of the Material Recovery Facility. Equipment used to sort and package recyclables was also damaged in the storm.
“The main piece that we're looking at is the baler,” Keys said. “If we're able to bale some of our own recycling materials, there's a higher value to it. If we're not able to bale it ourselves, we just don't get as much money back.”
The city of Columbia is encouraging residents to continue sorting and setting out their recycling materials per usual to keep in the habit. However, those recyclables are collected and taken to the landfill.
In the weeks since Columbia’s recycling program has paused, neighboring towns such as Ashland have seen a spike in the amount of materials left at drop-off recycling centers, leading some to discourage Columbia residents from dropping off their recyclables there.
Keys said she’s heard a variety of creative ways Columbia residents are finding ways to keep recycling.
“I've heard stories of people taking their recycling to St. Louis,” she said. “I would just encourage that they're sure they're taking it to a facility that can handle it.”
The damage from the tornado gives the city an avenue to rebuild and rethink its recycling program. The department got approval from the City Council to include automated recycling — a system where materials are placed in a roll cart and a truck equipped with a claws picks it up — in the budget. Keys said emphasizing proper recycling techniques such as separating glass from cardboard and plastic is important going forward.
“As we start back up, we'll need to work on a good communication plan so that we can reiterate the things that are important about our recycling program to bring the best value to our customers,” Keys said.
Stepping up maintenance
Keys has more than 25 years of experience with the city, holding a variety of roles in the Utilities department, including most recently acting as interim director. She was officially sworn into the position Monday and said hiring assistant directors for water, electric and sewer and stormwater is a priority as she takes on the role.
Multiple city departments have struggled to fill jobs in recent years. Keys said Utilities once had around 96 vacancies, but that number is now down to about 65.
Mayor Barbara Buffaloe said that historically the pay philosophy of the city was to not compete with private business.
“A couple years ago council made the decision (that) actually, we want to lead the market because we know that it will help us with recruitment and retention of dedicated staff,” she said.
She said progress is evident in the numbers. In April 2024, the city had more than 250 vacancies. Now that’s down to 180.
“Because of that historical shortage, it meant a lot of projects were kind of slower to get done,” Buffaloe said.
Keys said she thinks raises and compensation adjustments have helped with city employee recruitment and retention. Still, the shortages have meant utility maintenance was on the back burner.
“A lot of that hits us in maintenance for each of the utilities … maintaining our infrastructure … not having those employees, physical people, available to do maintenance work — it just means we're deferring maintenance,” she said.
“That's probably also one of my priorities is just trying to be more consistent about the maintenance of each of our utilities to try to get more done if we can,” Keys added.
Buffaloe said as budgets get tighter, city leaders are assessing what appropriate staffing levels for each department should be.
“Some of these jobs, they're hard jobs and it can take a wear and tear on your body and your mind,” she said. “Part of the conversations we've had as a council with our department heads and city manager have been, what does a good number of staff look like?”
Severe storms also pose a challenge to city electric infrastructure, and Keys said the Easter Sunday weather struck a weak spot where maintenance was ongoing— resulting in power outages.
“We were in the process of replacing, and are in the process of replacing, our existing transmission poles. When that storm hit, unfortunately, it found the poles we had not yet replaced,” she said.
Harshawn Ratanpal contributed to this report.
Correction: The city utilities department once had 96 job vacancies and is down to 65. An earlier version of this article included an incorrect number of vacancies.
