WATERLOO -- City staff may have to take over monitoring of flood debris removal next week.

Waterloo City Council members rejected a request Monday to spend another $25,000 for Beck Disaster Recovery Inc. of Orlando, Fla., to continue monitoring debris collected by a private contractor and filling out paperwork to request reimbursement for the flood costs through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

BDR had been hired under a $25,000 contract June 26 to monitor the flood waste being collected by Ceres Environmental of Brooklyn Park, Minn. Ceres is expected to be picking up debris until July 18 while BDR's monitoring contract, which is on a per-hour basis, is on pace to expire at the end of this week.

Mayor Tim Hurley sought the contract extension.

"Just like the flood, this came on us pretty quickly," he said. "I didn't want to take chances that we'd miss something" and not get fully reimbursed for local tax dollars being spent on the flood recovery efforts.

Council members actually voted 3-2 in favor of Hurley's request, but Councilmen Bob Greenwood and Quentin Hart were absent and the measure lacked the four votes required for passage. Councilmen Harold Getty and Steve Schmitt, who voted against the original BDR contract, voted no again.

Schmitt said he couldn't support spending taxpayer dollars to hire a consultant to fill out paperwork for the city to request funds from FEMA, another taxpayer-supported entity.

"I still believe our city staff, whether it's the Ceres monitoring or FEMA paperwork, has the ability to do that," he said.

Getty felt the BDR contract was wasteful given the small number of trucks Ceres is using in the collection effort.

"I don't understand why they don't have more trucks," Getty said. "They were in my area this afternoon. One truck. I'm upset that the equipment's not there like they told us it was going to be."

Getty said he watched a BDR monitor wait for more than an hour while the lone truck went to the landfill and returned.

Jon Hoyle, vice president of Beck Disaster Recovery, said Ceres actually had five crews working in the city: two on sandbags, two on regular debris and one on hazardous waste and appliances.

Councilwoman Carolyn Cole supported the BDR contract extension, noting FEMA would be picking up the bulk of those expenses.

Hurley said City Engineer Eric Thorson may now be tasked with picking up the extra work.

"A large chunk of his engineering corps-they're not available for a variety of reasons," he said.

Monday's action does not affect the contract with Ceres, which is being paid $247 per ton to collect the flood debris from curb sides.

As of Saturday noon, Ceres had hauled 2,129 tons of debris. The bulk was sandbags, but the effort included 773 tons of general flood debris and more than five tons of appliances.

Contact Tim Jamison at (319) 291-1577 or tim.jamison@wcfcourier.com.