District: No to buying headquarters (2/24/04)

After talking it over yet again, board members from the county’s solid waste district decided an annual lease payment of $1 looked pretty good.

Members of the Jay County Solid Waste District board of directors, who had floated the idea of buying their current headquarters from Jay County Landfill owner Waste Management of Indiana, voted Monday to abandon that pursuit after appraisals on the property came in above $70,000.

Although the district is currently paying Waste Management $500 per month to pay for renovation work at the former home located across Ind. 67 from the landfill, the annual lease payment after the renovations are paid off will be $1.

“Dollar-wise, (leasing) is probably the best move we can make,” board member Gerald Kirby said.

Portland Mayor Bruce Hosier offered an alternative, saying that the former Portland Fire Station on Commerce Street across from the courthouse would be available for the district.

Board president and Jay County Commissioner Milo Miller Jr. said that the current site, while not centrally-located geographically, was about equi-distant between Portland, Dunkirk and Redkey.

As part of a possible attempt to purchase the former home on the northwest corner of Ind. 67 and county road 400 South, the district obtained appraisals from local appraisers Jon Funk and Jim McCord. The appraisals were $70,500 (Funk) and $72,000 (McCord). State law says the district could not pay more than the average of those two appraisals, or $71,250.

Board members also decided to move ahead with construction of the pole building Monday. The building will be built by George Loyd Construction.

Also Monday, board members discussed possible changes to the district’s drop-off recycling program with Todd Wielinski, a representative of Waste Management’s recycling program based in Kokomo.

Wielinski said that the amount charged to the district for each trailer pull — about $144 — is roughly a third of the actual cost because the pulls are done on Saturday, increasing the amount of overtime paid to the drivers.

He said that Waste Management was committed to providing the service to the community, and asked for the board’s help in cost-cutting solutions.

Wielinski said that one cost-saver would be to drop off boxes at the recycling locations on Friday and pick them up on Monday, eliminating the weekend overtime.

If that was done, Wielinski said that he would provide boxes that could be locked to avoid trash being dumped into the boxes either before or after the Saturday recycling hours. The boxes would still be staffed by local groups during the Saturday morning hours.

District executive director Kay Hayes will check with those in charge of drop-off sites around the county to see if the Friday-Monday drop-off/pick-up schedule would work.

Recycling sites in the county include Bloomfield Elementary School, Pennville Fire Station, Ludwig’s grocery in Dunkirk, Will’s Market in Redkey and LoBill Foods in Portland.

In other business Monday afternoon, board members:

•Approved claims of $6,606.94. Income from a $1.50 per ton tipping fee levied on trash dumped in the Jay County Landfill was $14,980 in January. The district has a checking account balance of $140,042.77.

•Heard Hayes report that a large amount of materials has been donated for the district’s re-use center. “It was just amazing what all we’ve got,” Hayes said. A list of items available is on the district’s web site at www.jaycosolidwaste.org.[[In-content Ad]]