July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
State recycling grants on hold (01/27/2009)
Jay County Solid Waste District
By By MIKE SNYDER-
An $8,400 reduction in a budget topping $240,000 won't have a major impact.
But the director of a local organization tasked with promoting recycling says that she, and others in similar positions around the state, are wondering what Indiana is doing with funds that are intended for a specific purpose.
Kay Hayes, director of the Jay County Solid Waste District, said Monday that the local district would lose approximately $8,400 in Public Education and Promotion (PEP) grant funding in 2009. The state recently announced that due to financial difficulty it would not be giving out those grants this year.
But Hayes and others involved in recycling efforts across the state are wondering where that money will be used, since it is generated by a 50 cent per ton fee collected and paid by landfill operators across the state.
It is, she said, intended solely to promote recycling.
Losing the $8,400, "won't kill us. Losing ... (that money) for education hurts though," Hayes told board members Monday.
The PEP grants are distributed to waste districts in Indiana that have a total cash balance of $350,000 or less.
The grant program is administered by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
IDEM spokesperson Amy Hartsock said this morning that the agency was asked to identify programs in which spending could be cut or delayed to help in the current budget crisis.
She said that suspending the recycling grant and loan programs will save money and allow interest to be earned. Hartsock said this morning she did not know if the funds currently intended for grants would be used elsewhere in the state budget.
Also Monday, board members Bill Gibson, Bruce Hosier, Milo Miller Jr. and Jim Zimmerman voted to pay approximately $9,000 in bonuses to groups that staff the district's Saturday drop-off recycling locations. Board members Dan Orr, Ron Hunt and Faron Parr were not present at the meeting.
The bonuses are based on 1 cent for each pound of recyclable material collected, along with a .5 cent per pound bonus for each pound over the previous year's total.
Also, board members voted to pay the cost of siting and hauling a permanent recycling collection box at the Jay Community Center.
JCC director of development Carolyn Carducci made the request on behalf of the center, saying, "there's an incredible amount of recycling that is just thrown away."
The waste district, which has a similar arrangement with all 10 schools in the Jay School Corporation, pays a small amount to each of those schools. Any money paid to the community center will go to the Boys and Girls Clubs. Carducci said the project would also teach responsibility to the Boys and Girls Club members who participate.
Carducci said that more than 20,000 spectators and athletes are expected to be at the community center and other school gyms in the area for the center's upcoming Boomer youth basketball tournaments.
She said the majority of materials will be plastic beverage containers, along with miscellaneous paper and corrugated cardboard.
In other business Monday, board members:
•Heard Hayes say she is not accepting a raise in her base salary granted by the board. "I make a pretty good living ... I prefer to stay where I was," said Hayes. The board granted a 3 percent raise to Hayes and administrative assistant Jill Hall during its December meeting.
•Approved encumbrances, or bills that were incurred in 2008, totaling $11,734.23. A big chunk, $5,649.99, was brought forward in the contractual recycling fund to put towards the bonuses paid to the not-for-profit groups staffing the recycling drop-off locations.
•Re-elected Miller as president and Gibson as vice-president. Zimmerman was elected secretary, replacing Gary Theurer, who gave up his seat as a county commissioner and on the board. Theurer is now a member of the Jay County Council. The council agreed earlier this month to appoint new member Dan Orr to the waste district board, replacing long-time district board member Gerald Kirby.
•Approved claims of $16,619.40. District income was $14,714 in December. The district has a checking account balance of $94,114.59, with investment accounts totaling $101,974.06.[[In-content Ad]]
But the director of a local organization tasked with promoting recycling says that she, and others in similar positions around the state, are wondering what Indiana is doing with funds that are intended for a specific purpose.
Kay Hayes, director of the Jay County Solid Waste District, said Monday that the local district would lose approximately $8,400 in Public Education and Promotion (PEP) grant funding in 2009. The state recently announced that due to financial difficulty it would not be giving out those grants this year.
But Hayes and others involved in recycling efforts across the state are wondering where that money will be used, since it is generated by a 50 cent per ton fee collected and paid by landfill operators across the state.
It is, she said, intended solely to promote recycling.
Losing the $8,400, "won't kill us. Losing ... (that money) for education hurts though," Hayes told board members Monday.
The PEP grants are distributed to waste districts in Indiana that have a total cash balance of $350,000 or less.
The grant program is administered by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
IDEM spokesperson Amy Hartsock said this morning that the agency was asked to identify programs in which spending could be cut or delayed to help in the current budget crisis.
She said that suspending the recycling grant and loan programs will save money and allow interest to be earned. Hartsock said this morning she did not know if the funds currently intended for grants would be used elsewhere in the state budget.
Also Monday, board members Bill Gibson, Bruce Hosier, Milo Miller Jr. and Jim Zimmerman voted to pay approximately $9,000 in bonuses to groups that staff the district's Saturday drop-off recycling locations. Board members Dan Orr, Ron Hunt and Faron Parr were not present at the meeting.
The bonuses are based on 1 cent for each pound of recyclable material collected, along with a .5 cent per pound bonus for each pound over the previous year's total.
Also, board members voted to pay the cost of siting and hauling a permanent recycling collection box at the Jay Community Center.
JCC director of development Carolyn Carducci made the request on behalf of the center, saying, "there's an incredible amount of recycling that is just thrown away."
The waste district, which has a similar arrangement with all 10 schools in the Jay School Corporation, pays a small amount to each of those schools. Any money paid to the community center will go to the Boys and Girls Clubs. Carducci said the project would also teach responsibility to the Boys and Girls Club members who participate.
Carducci said that more than 20,000 spectators and athletes are expected to be at the community center and other school gyms in the area for the center's upcoming Boomer youth basketball tournaments.
She said the majority of materials will be plastic beverage containers, along with miscellaneous paper and corrugated cardboard.
In other business Monday, board members:
•Heard Hayes say she is not accepting a raise in her base salary granted by the board. "I make a pretty good living ... I prefer to stay where I was," said Hayes. The board granted a 3 percent raise to Hayes and administrative assistant Jill Hall during its December meeting.
•Approved encumbrances, or bills that were incurred in 2008, totaling $11,734.23. A big chunk, $5,649.99, was brought forward in the contractual recycling fund to put towards the bonuses paid to the not-for-profit groups staffing the recycling drop-off locations.
•Re-elected Miller as president and Gibson as vice-president. Zimmerman was elected secretary, replacing Gary Theurer, who gave up his seat as a county commissioner and on the board. Theurer is now a member of the Jay County Council. The council agreed earlier this month to appoint new member Dan Orr to the waste district board, replacing long-time district board member Gerald Kirby.
•Approved claims of $16,619.40. District income was $14,714 in December. The district has a checking account balance of $94,114.59, with investment accounts totaling $101,974.06.[[In-content Ad]]
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