KINGWOOD — Changes are coming to the Kingwood Recycle Center.
Kingwood Mayor Jean Guillot said people are dumping their garbage in the city’s recycling bins. He said the city will have to either gate the center or lock them and only have them open during daylight hours.
Councilman Mike Livengood had a different solution. He said the city should do what council said it would when a dog that had been dead for several days was discarded in one of the bins — close the recycling center down.
Guillot said it takes city workers two or more hours to sort the trash from the recycled items. This takes them away from their scheduled jobs.
Council voted to move the recycling bins from the garage to the recycling area, fence and gate the bins in, and add cameras. Guillot said an employee will be on site and lock the gate after working hours. It was suggested that the top of the gated area also be covered with fencing.
Aaron Johnson, head librarian at the Kingwood Public Library, said they are getting ready to start refurnishing the library.
“The current furniture has been there since 1968. It’s usable but old,” he said. “We want to get an ADA compliant check-out desk. The one we have now is not compliant.”
Commissioners approved the use of $15,363 that was left over from $50,000 the city gave them for repair to go toward the desk.
Johnson said there has been an increase of patronage at the library. He said he was averaging 10 people a month signing up for new library cards.
In other business, council voted to hold a meeting at 6 p.m. March 11 to condemn several properties. One of the properties on the list earlier for consideration is now up for sale.
The historic Herring building (sometimes called the Schwab building) at 101 S. Price St. is up for sale again. This time it is being auctioned off online by Joe R. Pyle Complete Auction and Reality Service. According to the flier, the list price is $177,300, but the flier also indicates that price should be disregarded. The building was last sold at auction on Oct. 25, 2016, for $26,000.
It was constructed on the site of the old John H. Brown store and opened as the Herring Store Aug. 1, 1914. The cost of the construction was $20,000, according to W.G. Williams’ book, “Indians and the First 150 Years.
The next meeting of the Kingwood City Council will be 6:30 p.m. March 12.
