Williamsburg will install cameras at compost site

WILLIAMSBURG — The Williamsburg City Council hopes that putting cameras at its compost site will keep unauthorized people from dumping organic waste there.

The council voted unanimously Monday to purchase two cameras from Custom Connections in North Liberty — one that can read license plates and another with low-light color night vision.

The $5,000 price tag also includes a hard drive, cables and installation.

Councilwoman Anne Zalenski was absent from the meeting.

Residents of Williamsburg can take organic waste — shrubs, branches, stumps — to the city’s compost yard east of Manatt’s on Walnut Street. The city grinds up the organic material, and residents can take the chips for private use at no charge.

City officials say that people from outside the city limits have been bringing their organic material to the compost site. The cost to grind up all the material every spring and fall is costing the city more than $6,000 each time.

The city council has talked for months about ways to keep non-residents from dumping there. City Manager Aaron Sandersfeld suggested in November that the city council consider putting up a gate and requiring access codes to enter.

“We’re spending a lot of money,” said Sandersfeld in November, and the city is spending it on people who aren’t residents of the town.

“Is that really a good use of tax dollars?” Sandersfeld asked.

Sandersfeld said in January that a gate would cost about $13,000. “There are days when there are 300 cars through there,” he said.

City Councilman Tyler Marshall said he preferred monitoring the dumping rather than gating the site. The city has a camera system, but it’s not great for reading license plates, said Sandersfeld.

On Monday, the council decided to install cameras and fine people from outside the city who dump organic waste at the city site.

“I’d like to get something in place” before the next storm,“ said Marshall. The cameras will allow the city to keep the site open and unlocked but still fine people shouldn’t be dumping there, Marshall said.

Marshall wants to discourage people from bringing trailer loads of tree trunks to Williamsburg and making the city pay to grind them up, he said.

How to pay for the cameras was not as simple a decision. It’s not a streets problem or a water problem, said Sandersfeld, but the organic material is coming off people’s property, so the disposal of the material should be paid for with property tax.

Sandersfeld and City Clerk Niki Osweiler suggested using hotel-motel tax. The council will decide during a future meeting from where to take the funds.