$540,000 for Yardy anti-tip guard yanked from Cedar Rapids budget

CEDAR RAPIDS - A local inventor watched last night as the City Council, on a 6-2 vote, yanked his $540,000 plan to protect residents from their Yardy yard-waste carts out of the city's proposed new budget.

It was something of a change of heart from a month ago when a consensus of the council expressed support for including 54,000 of Kim Brokaw's anti-tip CartGuards in the budget.

But council member Justin Shields told Brokaw last night he had fielded a bevy of phone calls and e-mails about the council proposal to buy the anti-tip guards, and not one person favored the city spending money on the device, he said.

Mayor Ron Corbett and council member Pat Shey voted to buy Brokaw's invention. Council member Monica Vernon, whose research firm helped Brokaw make his claim that Yardys injure people, recused herself from the discussion and the vote.

In the end, council member Chuck Swore said he couldn't justify spending $540,000 for Brokaw's product when the council cut $580,000 out of the budget for a new fire truck.