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Fort Madison Still Withholding Fee

Fort Madison, IA – Fort Madison is not ready to resume payments to the Great River Regional Waste Authority. The city's monthly waste management fee payment, $17,000, has been withheld since last month. The city council stopped the payments after a state audit revealed improper or questionable spending by the authority. Council member Brad Randolph says more changes to operations, at the landfill, are needed before the payments could resume. He says it starts with firing director Tim Yoder, who remains on paid leave, and appointing a new waste authority commission. Chairman Steve Ireland says the waste authority's financial future is in trouble if Fort Madison and Montrose continue to delay waste management fee payments. He says the county will be on the hook if the authority cannot make its debt payments, which could result in higher taxes. Ireland, who is also Fort Madison's mayor, has asked the city council to revisit the fee at its first meeting in September.