PHOTO BY DAVID LOWE Billy Bachmayer, president of Bell County Iron & Recycling Co. Inc., and Mayor Judy Hetherly, right, sign a lease agreement allowing the company to open a full-service recycling center on 2.61 acres off Farm to Market Road 580 East. Bachmayer and his wife, company vice president Jessica Bachmayer, center, plan to open the Lampasas site within about 45 days. A lease agreement signed recently will bring a recycling business to land owned by the Lampasas Economic Development Corp.

Officials from Bell County Iron & Recycling Co. Inc., which operates Kempner Iron & Metal, signed a three-year lease agreement -- with the option of two one-year extensions -- to open a Lampasas recycling center on 2.61 acres off Farm to Market Road 580 East.

The company will pay $460 per month the first year, $470 per month the second year and $480 monthly in the third year of the contract. If Bell County Iron & Recycling extends its contract, monthly rent would be $504 in the fourth year and $516 in the fifth.

The company has the option of purchasing the land from the LEDC.

The Lampasas recycling facility will pay customers for aluminum, copper, steel, plastic, cardboard and many types of paper, including magazines and newsprint. The center also will pay for lead acid batteries and will accept certain computer parts, as well as refrigerators and air-conditioning units with the freon removed.

Glass may be accepted -- although likely without payment -- within the next few months, Bell County Iron & Recycling president Billy Bachmayer said.

Staff from the Lampasas center can place recycling containers at Lampasas schools for pickup, Bachmayer added.

The Lampasas facility is scheduled to open within about 45 days, Bachmayer said. Bell County Iron & Recycling plans to have two employees running the Lampasas center. One has begun training.

"I think this is going to go well enough that one of these days we can have three or four [employees]," Bachmayer said.

The company president said with industries under pressure to recycle, a facility that accepts a variety of products for reuse could promote economic growth by eventually attracting new businesses to Lampasas.

Although the LEDC owns the land on which the recycling center will sit, City Manager Michael Stoldt said Lampasas will collect property tax revenue once the site converts to private sector use.

"We could've made it into a public works barn," Stoldt said of a metal building on the property, "but that would have kept it off the property tax rolls."

Stoldt and Mayor Judy Hetherly said they regularly face questions about the availability of recycling venues in Lampasas.

"I don't think there's a week that goes by that I don't get asked about recycling," Ms. Hetherly said. "It's absolutely on everybody's mind."

The Lampasas City Council has no plans at this time to establish a mandatory recycling program, Stoldt said.

"But we strongly encourage everybody to participate," Ms. Hetherly added.

A specific-use permit approved by the City Council prohibits operations at the Lampasas recycling business between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m., and it requires a 10-foot-high fence to screen the storage area from view.

"We have put in safeguards for the people who live in that area," Stoldt said. Construction of the fence could begin by mid-month, Bachmayer said.

He and his wife, Bell County Iron & Recycling vice president Jessica Bachmayer, have not named the Lampasas recycling center. The couple are soliciting name suggestions from Lampasas schoolchildren. They plan to give a $500 savings bond to the student who submits the winning moniker.

LEDC Coordinator Cherry Hargrove, who led the effort to recruit Bell County Iron & Recycling and has been in contact with company officials for more than a year, said Lampasas will benefit from the opening of the new facility.

"We just think it's a great industry to bring to the city," Mrs. Hargrove said.