Trailer cost could increase

The cost for Saturday recycling trailers in Jay County may see a major increase.
The Jay County Solid Waste Management District Board learned Monday that Waste Management might more than double what it currently charges after its contract with the district expires in April.
The board also approved maintaining a one-cent per pound bonus for groups that staff the recycling trailers and funding for a water barrel painting contest.
Financial manager Freda Corwin told the board that she has been in contact with a Waste Management representative, who said the company is currently losing money on its contract with the board.
Waste Management charges $220 per trailer that it brings to the county each week, and there is also a $44 per ton rate when each trailer is emptied. The company regularly drops off the trailers on Friday for use on Saturday, and then picks them up early the next week.
Corwin said the representative told her the cost to move a trailer is about $100 per hour and that the company averages 5.5 hours on each trailer each week. That would mean the new rate could come in at about $550 per trailer, more than double what the district currently pays.
Another option, Corwin said, would be for Waste Management to leave the trailers at their sites until dropping off an empty one, which would cut the time in half.
But board members expressed concerns about that idea because while some sites have a trailer each week, others, including Redkey, Salamonia, Bryant and Pennville, have them only once a month.
“I’d be concerned with a full one sitting there unattended, because you know it’s going to get a pile of stuff sitting next to it,” said board member Doug Inman. “They do now. You drive by (MainStreet Market) before the thing is even open on Saturday morning and there’s piles of stuff.”
The board asked Corwin to get specific quotes, which it will review at its next meeting.
Members Jeannie Houchins, Faron Parr, Dan Watson and Bill Gibson, with Jim Zimmerman and Randy Geesaman absent, also approved keeping the one cent per pound bonus for groups that staff the recycling trailers. They had bumped the bonus up to 1 cent last year after offering a half-cent bonus previously. During 2014, the district paid $8,170.30 in bonuses to local groups.
The board also approved $450 to allow district educator Bettie Jacobs to run a rain barrel painting contest for local 4-H clubs in an effort to promote recycling.
The district will provide a rain barrel that has already been sanded and primed to each of the county’s 18 4-H clubs. It will then be up to the clubs to decorate the barrels, and a judge will choose the top three with $100 cash prizes for the winners.
The barrels will be displayed in the 4-H Building during the Jay County Fair in July.
In other business, the board:
•Elected Houchins president and Inman vice president for 2015.
•Named Justin Buster of Waste Management, Carter Leonard, Paula Confer and Cindy Denney to its citizens’ advisory committee.
•Heard from Houchins that Portland Moose Lodge inquired about the possibility of having a recycling trailer placed at its property. The board discussed the issue, but took no action.
•Set its next meeting for 3:30 p.m. March 2.
•Encumbered $4,776.18 from 2014 for payment of bills.
•Paid claims, which were higher than usual because of grant disbursements, totaling $33,976.46.
The district brought in tipping fees of $26,077, leaving its total balance at $356,426.17.