Fairfield residents may have to pay for previously free mulch

FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield City Council discussed a proposal to establish fees for both dropping off yard waste and picking up wood chips during its meeting Monday, Feb. 23.

The city had previously provided wood chips for free at its compost site on South 20th Street. After that site was closed in 2024, the city maintained a free mulch pile at a lot it owned just south of Hy-Vee.

Under a proposed ordinance before the council, Fairfield residents would have to pay for this mulch that was previously free. A full pick-up load of wood chips (defined as 4 feet by 4 feet by 8 feet) would cost $25 plus tax, and half a load would cost $12.50 plus tax. That would be roughly the same cost that the city has charged residents to drop off yard waste at its maintenance garage at 1002 W. Jefferson Ave. Waste Management stickers, which residents can place on yard waste bags to be picked up by Waste Management on their trash pick-up day, would remain $2.50.

Though the council ultimately voted 6-0 to advance this ordinance from the first to the second reading, council member Elizabeth Estey was initially skeptical about the plan to charge residents for mulch.

“It still seems like a bait and switch, since we just established all of those fees for people disposing of their yard waste, which was supposed to offset the cost of the mulching,” Estey said.

Council member Tom Twohill chimed in to say he felt the fee for mulch pick-up was reasonable.

“We’re not creating a profit center out of this,” he said. “We’re not making money at all. It’s not a money-grab or anything.”

Estey remained skeptical.

“We just addressed this issue, and maybe we didn’t fully address it, but at the time, it was like ‘we have so much mulch we don’t know what to do with it, we’ll be giving it away for the rest of our lives,’” Estey said.

Council member Paul Gandy said he understood Estey’s concern, but felt that the matter was not fully addressed the last time the council took it up.

Fairfield City Engineer and Public Works Director Melanie Carlson said the mulch pick-up fee was intended to off set the cost of grinding the yard waste into wood chips. She reminded the council that the city still offers free yard waste pick-up days throughout the year.

The council members who voted to advance the ordinance from the first reading to the second were Gandy, Twohill, Estey, Bob Ferguson, Matthew Rowe and Victoria Thompson. Terri Kness was absent.

The city’s website indicates that the maintenance shed on Jefferson Avenue will reopen for yard waste drop-off on April 6.

  Buy Photo