Director hired, budget approved

Jay County Solid Waste Management District is ready for the future.
The district board on Monday hired Ronyelle Edwards as its new director and approved its budget for 2016.
It also addressed concerns about the cost of recycling trailers in Bryant and heard the trailer in Redkey will be moved back to its previous location.
Edwards, a Portland resident who grew up in Redkey, most recently worked full-time for Stewardship Resource Group of Hartford City. She had worked at Preferred Medical Management and Union Bank (now MainSource Bank) in Portland and Elkhart Products Corporation in Geneva.
All of those positions involved payroll, accounting and bookkeeping services.
She takes over the position from Freda Corwin, who announced her resignation last month. She has served as director since August 2012.
“I would like to thank you for the outstanding job you’ve done since you’ve taken this position,” said board member Jim Zimmerman. “You’ve really straightened things out for us. You’ve made our job a lot easier.”
Edwards planned to start her new job today, working alongside Corwin for the rest of this week. Corwin plans to be available to help on an as-needed basis in the coming months.
The first 90 days on the job will be a probationary period, with a long-term contract to be signed in October.
Board members Jeanne Houchins, Doug Inman, Dan Watson, Jim Zimmerman, Randy Geesaman, Faron Parr and Bill Gibson approved the budget of $265,600 for 2016. That is up about $30,000 from this year, with most of the difference from an increase in the cost of weekend recycling.
The budget must be approved as part of the overall county budget and then submitted to Indiana Department of Local Government Finance.
The board took steps to help keep those costs under control, deciding to ask Bloomfield Elementary PTO to make an adjustment on its recycling format at the school.
Currently there is a permanent recycling trailer at the school, as well as one that is delivered for use one Saturday a month.
Board members asked that the PTO choose one or the other — a full-time trailer or one that comes once a month. Currently, the monthly trailer is costing the district $1,246 per month, which is more than double some of the county’s other sites. The increased cost is because of distance from Waste Management in Muncie and the necessity to pick up the trailer rather than leaving it on site.
Corwin also told the board that the Saturday recycling trailer in Redkey will be moved back to Will’s IGA. It was shifted to the former town hall this month, but will return to Will’s in August at the business owner’s request.
In other business, the board:
•Approved payment of claims totaling $16,859.96. The district brought in $30,934 in tipping fees at Jay County Landfill last month and now has a total balance in its savings and checking accounts of $444,024.64.
•OK’d transfers of $744.79 from the City of Portland grand fund to the miscellaneous services fund and $180 from the legal services fund to the education training fund.
•Asked that residents no longer bring electronics to the district office for disposal. Those items should be held until Tox Away Day, which is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 26 in the East Jay Middle School parking lot.
•Heard from educator Bettie Jacobs that she attended a statewide education roundtable this month in Winchester and offered to host the event next year.
She also announced Jackson Champs, Madison Go-Getters and Pike Rebels as the winners of the district’s rain barrel decorating contest, and said she is planning her next rain barrel workshop for the spring.
•Agreed to donate about 200 bags made out of recycled material to Jay County Special Olympics.