Make guards optional, resident urges council

CEDAR RAPIDS - City Council members have reported plenty of negative public reaction to the idea of spending $540,000 to buy 54,000 anti-tip guards to install on 54,000 city-issued Yardy yard waste carts.

Local inventor Kim Brokaw said the Yardy carts cause 600 injuries a year in Cedar Rapids.

He is charging $8 each for his CartGuard with the city figuring a $2 installation fee. The city wants to make sure it installs what it buys so city solid-waste customers don't just throw the things away. The inventor, who used to own and operate Brokaw Vending, has noted that he would face a public bidding process before the city bought his product. But he has said, too, that no one else has such a product to bid against him.

During the public-comment period at the council meeting Wednesday, Richard Rauch of 361 Willshire Ct. NE told the council he was scratching his head a bit over the plan.

Rauch suggested that the council give the city's solid-waste customers an opportunity to purchase one of Brokaw's CartGuards if they feel they need protection from the Yardy.

Rauch suggested, too, that the council could even, if it wanted to do Brokaw a favor, let him make the offer with a notice in the city's water bill.

Mayor Ron Corbett told Rauch the council would address its proposal to buy Brokaw's CartGuard at the March 9 council budget meeting. If the council approved the purchase, it would come from solid-waste user fees paid by the city's solid-waste customers. If the council used cash reserves, the money for the purchase would come from those user fees that customers earlier paid to the city.