The City of Washington will have a new garbage service provider, though it won’t mean anything different for residents.

The city’s current garbage service provider Johnson County Refuse Owner Steve Smith informed the city council at their recent meeting that he has been approached and plans to sell his business to LRS of Iowa, closing on November 30th. Smith cited a desire from his wife to retire, though he says he’s not quite ready yet, and will stay on as district manager as well as all his current employees. Smith’s North Liberty-based business currently provides services to cities including Ainsworth, Kalona, and Riverside. Smith mentioned that two of his staff live in Washington, and all of his employees will be getting a couple dollar-an-hour raise with the new ownership, “One of the things that I, at the beginning was important to me at the beginning that this was going to go through, that they come up with a good package for our employees. They’ve come up with a good package for them to where it’s hard for me to turn down because of them.”

Of Johnson County Refuse’s 17 city contracts, seven of them require council approval to sign them over. That excludes Washington, but Smith said he wanted to give all cities the same courtesy in requesting their blessing. City Attorney Kevin Olson reviewed the agreement for the business sale, and the council approved on City Clerk Sally Hart’s recommendation. Residents will not see a change in services and will continue to use the same containers.