Ed Clark of the Pulaski County Recycling Center appeared before the Pulaski County Commissioners Monday for his monthly report with some good news: the Recycling Center has brought in $32,344 this month so far—more than doubling the income from October. Find drop off locations on the Recycling Center Near Me website.
Clark says this trend is going to continue.
“Pulaski County Recycling and Transfer Station has brought back to the county $284,000 to date. We will do better. My goal is to get over $300,000. We’ll make that,” said Clark.
But there is a problem plaguing the recycling center, and that is a lack of labor. Clark recently appeared before the county council to request enough money to pay his part-time employees to the end of 2011, but Clark says they only received $6,400 of the $10,000 he requested. In order to make up for his tightened budget, he would only be able to work his part-time employees for 32 hours a week as opposed to his previous 35-hour work week. This drop in labor has caused the recycling center to lose a portion of its productivity.
“We need more people to bail the products, to sell the products, to complete the recycling cycle. That’s what I need. By not having as many employees, and then putting them into 32 hour work when they used to be 35 hours, I need another person. Without one more person at least, I am way behind and it can’t happen unless we get one more person,” Clark said.
Next year, Clark says the recycling center will be better off. A $20,000 budget increase is in the works for the recycling center, thanks to their increase in revenue, so Clark requested the commissioners approve his request for an additional person. No decision was made at the time, but Commissioner Boswell said that he thinks the commissioners will need to look into the needs in help that each department needs.
