Changes are coming to the Ripon Recycling Center.

Councilman Leo Zuber made that announcement at Tuesday's Ripon City Council meeting.

"The coordinators identified some issues and concerns about the operation of the recycling center -- considerable time was spent discussing these issues and the result came to adjustments of the operating schedule," he said,

Beginning Monday (May 17), the facility at 178 S. Industrial Ave. will be open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Hours of operation will be from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesday; and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday.

Getting volunteer help for the coordinators was a big reason for the change.

"The coordinators were having a difficult time getting volunteers to the center by 3:30 p.m. because many are parents who have to deal with students getting out of school. They felt that the extra half hour would make it easier to get more volunteers. Also, experience with the current schedule shows that there are often gaps in the user streams during the hours the center is open," said Zuber, who also believes that compressing the schedule will still allow ample time for residents to get to the site while reducing the time commitment for the volunteers.

The center will be closed on Friday, Sunday and nine federal holidays.

As for commercial users?

"There has been some success with the use of Tuesday for commercial deposits at the center. However, the coordinators believe there are commercial users who would make use of the center if access for them were increased," Zuber said.

That's changed.

Commercials users will now be able to access the center on any day that it's open, sharing time with residential users.

Coordinators only ask that commercial users with large volumes of cardboard arrive at 4 p.m. or 5:30 p.m. to minimize the impact on residential users.

The recycling center has greatly benefitted the community, according to Zuber.

Included are Ripon Unified students, who receive a portion of the profits on an annual basis.

Added Zuber: "Having the recycling center helps the city reach its waste diversion requirements put in place by the State. This helps keep garbage rates low for the entire community."

More information is available by calling 209.599.2108 or logging on to www.cityofripon.org.