The Kalona City Council approved the transfer of the city’s garbage and recycling contract during their regular meeting on November 15th. 

LRS Recycling out of Chicago, Illinois is in the process of acquiring Johnson County Refuse. City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh says that the city won’t see too many changes to the services provided, “We’ll see some changes on the administrative side but we’ll still have that interaction with the Johnson County Refuse staff for the foreseeable future.”

Schlabaugh says he anticipates that the closing of the acquisition will be in the first quarter of 2022. The current contract with Johnson County Refuse is set to expire in June of 2023. Once the city reaches that date, the council will have the option to extend the contract with LRS or pursue other options and open for bids. In addition to Kalona, Johnson County Refuse currently provides services to Washington, Riverside and Ainsworth.