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 Vehicles lined the entire length of Postville Drive
from Fifth Street to the Car wash adjacent to Postville Drive on
Woodlawn Road. The line also wound throughout the fairgrounds with
traffic directed to go from the west gate to the north end, past the
livestock show barn and back around to near the east gate exit at
the fairgrounds before making their deposit of worn out televisions
and computer monitors.
"I knew it would be this way,” Rohlfs said as she checked the
identification of a driver. She had anticipated the large crowds and
had put the word out early last week there would be a limit on how
many semi loads of used TVs and monitors this drive would be able to
handle.
As a result, vehicles were lined up before the opening time of 9
a.m. and continued to come in quicker than they went out for quite
some time.
The special recycling event was a partnership effort between the
city of Lincoln and the LCJSWA, with the city picking up the tab for
the first semi load. The LCJSWA would then pick up the tab for no
more than two more trailers this go around. Rohlfs had told the
members of the Lincoln City Council late last month that her goal
was to have this one large event now to help dispose of items Logan
County residents have had on hand for quite some time. She is
hopeful that getting the big event behind her, she will then be able
to have regular, smaller events in the future, contingent upon
available funds.
Working with a recycling firm from Bloomington, Rohlfs got a very
good rate for this event. The semi-trailers were to cost $400 each.
The city of Lincoln agreed to pay the first $400, and Alderman Tracy
Welch also publicly encouraged Logan County residents to make a
donation to assist in covering the balance of the cost of three
trailers.
The city of Lincoln provided some labor for the
event, including city employees who were paid to operate the front
end loader that would stack the large cardboard cartons in the
trailers as they were filled.
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There were also plenty of volunteers including city aldermen,
members of the LCJSWA Board of Directors, city employees who
volunteered, and members of the community.
The event was open to all Logan County residents, and Rohlfs spent
the most of her time checking identification, assuring that only
local households were permitted to take advantage of the free
offering. There were other rules that had to be followed as well. No
more than five pieces per household, and TVs or computer monitors
with broken screens or exposed CRT (Cathode Ray Tubes) were not
accepted.
As vehicles made their way to the collection point, Rohlfs checked
id's, verified the number of items being dumped and checked to make
sure the items were not busted up into pieces.
The vehicles were then pulled up, and volunteers unloaded them,
sorting items immediately. Smaller items were taken directly to the
trailer, while bulkier items were placed in the cardboard cartons,
other very large pieces were set aside to be individually loaded as
time would allow.
When the large cartons were fully loaded, they were wrapped with
clear shrink wrap, and a tractor with forklift then loaded them onto
the trailer.
[Nila Smith]
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