District planning for new position

Although current director Kay Hayes hasn’t set a definite date for her departure, members of a local board are moving forward with plans to fill a portion of her role with a part-time contract worker.
The board of directors of the Jay County Solid Waste District agreed Monday to begin advertising for a contract educator in early November, with a target start date of early December.
Hayes, the only director in the district’s eight-year history, announced earlier this summer she plans to resign and move south to be near family. She said Monday that she still is not sure of her timetable, but would like to be finished “by Thanksgiving at the latest.”
The district, which has struggled financially over the past year or so, plans to save money by reducing staff following Hayes’ resignation. The district currently has two full- and one part-time employee. That will be reduced to a director/financial administrator and the contract educator. Jill Hall, the current financial assistant, is expected to be named to the new director/financial position.
A board committee comprised of Faron Parr, Dan Orr and Bill Gibson prepared a job description for the new contract educator position. The description calls for the educator to spend a minimum of five hours per month working with school-age children, and also says the worker will report to the board at its monthly meeting.
The committee did not make a recommendation on hours per week or salary. Currently, just $5,000 is budgeted in 2011 for part-time help.
The board appointed Parr to coordinate with WorkOne to develop a job description and screen résumés. The board will then interview finalists in executive session.
“With what we’re expecting, and what we can pay, I don’t know that we’ll get a lot of applications,” Parr said.
Sandy Doyle, who has worked part-time for the district for several years and who could be a candidate for the educator position, asked about her current position. “That means at the end of the year I’m done?”
Members of the board, including president Milo Miller Jr., confirmed that the funding for Doyle’s position will not be available in the 2011 budget.
In other business Monday, Hayes told board members that about 71,000 pounds of household hazardous waste was collected during Tox Away Day on Saturday, Sept. 18. That is down 56,000 pounds from previous totals.
The lower total may have been influenced by good weather that day, as some farmers may have been working in the fields and unable to drop off household hazardous waste.
Hayes also said the lower totals could be evidence that previous efforts to get hazardous waste disposed of properly are working.
About 450 vehicles brought a variety of items to the event at East Jay Middle School — including hazardous liquids, appliances, tires and computers.
In other business, members of the district board:
•Approved claims totaling $48,461.22 — including $24,000 to hazardous waste contractor NuGenesis. That left the district with $14,844.24 in checking and $52,647.18 in an investment account.
The district did get a bit of good financial news Monday, as income of $22,767 was reported in the first full month of the new district tipping fee.
That fee, which is collected on trash deposited in the Jay County Landfill, was raised to $1.75 per month earlier this year and the change took effect in August. The district’s income was approximately $6,000 more than it would have been with the previous $1.25 per ton fee.
•Heard Miller report that a plan by Jay County Commissioners to possibly move Jefferson Township voting to the waste district offices at Ind. 67 and county road 400 South is on hold. The commissioners believe issues can be worked out with officials controlling the Jay County Scout Cabin and that voting can be returned there.
Miller said paving a portion of the parking area at the waste district, which is owned by landfill owner Waste Management, would have cost more than $3,000.
•Learned that repairs on the odometer on the district’s pick-up truck would cost an estimated $300. Members of the board had discussed the possibility of selling the truck earlier this year as a cost-saving measure, but Orr said Monday he believes the truck is necessary.
•Changed district policies to require two signatures on all district checks. Miller, Orr and Hall will all be authorized to sign checks, with two of the three required to sign each time.[[In-content Ad]]