
By
Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com
A new-to-Charles City manufacturer plans to begin production soon and hopes to have 50 to 60 employees working here.
Kevin Watje, the CEO of Curbtender LLC, was at the Charles City Area Development Corp. meeting Wednesday morning to introduce himself to the group and give some background regarding the company and its plans for the community.
Curbtender, which is based in Cedar Falls, had announced in December that it purchased the former Winnebago Industries assembly building in the Southeast Development Park and would begin manufacturing trash collection trucks there.
“Curb Tender has been in business like 55 years,” said Watje (pronounced “WAIT-gee”). “It used to be under a name called Wayne Engineering. I and some partners bought it out about 20 years ago out of bankruptcy.”
The company builds street sweepers, trash trucks, pull-off hoists, leaf loaders, landscape bodies and other items. It has seen 500% revenue growth since 2018, the company said when it announced the Charles City property purchase, and has expanded its facilities in Cedar Falls a couple of times. It has also opened facilities in Nebraska in 2020 and South Carolina in 2021.
“We’re kind of an innovation company,” Watje said. “We’re growing about 20% to 25% year over year, and so that brings us challenges, but we’re very fortunate to find this building. We’re very excited about it because we’ve got a lot of great candidates (for) employees.”
The company will be manufacturing front-loader trash collectors in Charles City, the kind that approaches a dumpster from the front and lifts it up over the cab to empty it, he said.
Curbtender has learned that is most successful if it concentrates on manufacturing one or two products per facility instead of every facility trying to produce every product, he said.
They also have found through experience, “when we build new factories, or go to a different factory, let’s go to a place that’s smaller, preferably rural, because we think the rural work ethic is better,” he said. “The choices that people have there seem to align with us better.”
The company is introducing a new product line, building ditch mowers, and was going to do that at the Charles City plant, too, but decided there isn’t enough room to do both.
“After the engineers went through the whole factory and mapped everything out, they said, well, probably not enough room for the mower business,” Watje said. “So we’re probably still on the lookout for a building for mowers.”
Area Development Corp. CEO Tim Fox suggested that there was room to add on to the factory at the former Winnebago site, but Watje said much of the parking area around the building will need to be used to store chassis that will be shipped there to be used to make the front-loaders.
At the company’s plant in Cedar Falls, where the haulers are built now, there are about 150 chassis there, he said.
The company is currently at its maximum capacity building front-loaders, and is turning away orders, Watje said.
“Our goal is to make one a day here,” he said.
The company has already hired several people, including several Charles City residents or people who are moving to town. When the property purchase was announced, the company said it would start by creating about 20 jobs at the Charles City plant.
Watje said the plan now is to have several times that many employees here.
“The purchase of this factory is an important step forward for Curbtender,” Watje had said previously. “Charles City offers an ideal location for our expansion, and this facility will play a key role in helping us scale our operations to keep pace with customer needs.”
Also at the Charles City Area Development Corp. meeting Wednesday morning, the board:
• Reelected Scott Melliere of Valero Renewables as president, elected Tammy Elthon of Circle K Communications as vice-president and Becky Boerschel of Zoetis Charles City as secretary, and reelected Sarah George of Machine Tool Engineering Inc. as treasurer for 2025.
• Thanked and commemorated outgoing board members Jeremy Bahe, Chris Garden, Mark Kuhn, Ronald Litterer and Trevis O’Connell.
• Heard from Fox and Mayor Dean Andrews that there were at least two companies interested in acquiring the closed Pure Prairie Poultry chicken processing plant on North Main Street, but nothing had been decided.
Andrews said the city would prefer that the plant not be a chicken kill site, but that may not be up to the city and it may not be viable to run the plant as just a processing facility.
“Some of those companies that are looking would like to do some things in the city limits that we’re hesitant to, plus we’d also have to make sure that they meet our wastewater requirements – which Pure Prairie was not at the end,” Andrews said.
• Heard from Fox that the lawsuit that Floyd County and several other counties filed asking for judicial review of the Iowa Utilities Commission’s decision conditionally granting a permit for Summit Carbon Solutions to build a carbon dioxide pipeline through Iowa, including through the Avenue of the Saints Development Park owned by the CCADC, was slowly winding its way through Polk County District Court.
• Was encouraged by Fox to attend the Floyd County Medical Center’s 60th anniversary black tie gala scheduled for Feb. 21, to show support for the Medical Center. CCADC member Makenzie McNeill, the Medical Center’s director of marketing, said RSVPs need to be made by Feb. 7 so the food orders can be given to the caterer. More than 30 local businesses have partnered on the event as vendors, supporters, sponsors, or prize donors, she said.
Funds raised will go toward any future expansions of services or construction projects, McNeill said, adding that they have been asked if any of the funds raised would go toward the current clinic and hospital expansion project, and the answer is no, that project is fully funded.
“This would be for any future events after that, because we are growing,” she said.