Waste district to offer grants

With its finances in good shape and getting better every month, Jay County Solid Waste Management District is looking for more ways to promote recycling.
The district board gave its approval Monday for a new grant program to offer money to teachers and schools for recycling-related activities. To implement the program, it created a new line item in its budget and approved an additional $10,000 appropriation.
Board members also discussed bringing a percussion group to a local event for promotional purposes and got an update on electronics recycling.
District educator Bettie Jacobs had approached the board with the idea for a grant program at its October meeting and returned with a proposal Monday. It offers local schools the opportunity to request grant money for recycling-related projects for which funding is not available in the school budget.
Those could include classroom curriculum, a recycling assembly, purchasing recycling containers, buying books for the library or a variety of other activities. Educators are encouraged not to limit themselves to a list but to bring any ideas they have to the table.
“I just look at the funds that we have … and we need to be using them,” said Jacobs of the cash balance that is now $482,252.47, more than seven times what it was five years ago. “We need to get out there more.
“What we want is awareness. We want to get more and more awareness out there.”
With board members Jeanne Houchins, Dan Watson, Jim Zimmerman, Bill Gibson, Faron Parr, Randy Geesaman and Doug Inman approving the proposal, Jacobs plans to send letters to schools in the coming weeks. The application deadline will be Feb. 28.
“Bettie, I think it’s a great idea,” said Watson. “That’s what we’re supposed to be about. I’m all in favor of it.”
“If it’s successful and we have some good ideas, then possibly we could continue it another year in 2017 and have $15,000,” added Houchins.
Jacobs also would like to bring the Indianapolis group Dumpster Drummers, which performs a percussion show using trash cans as its drums, to a local event to promote the efforts of the district. She brought up the Jay County Fair as a possibility, with bard members also suggesting the Jay County 4th of July parade and celebration or the inaugural farm show that is scheduled for late next summer.
The group will put on one show for $600 or two for $900, and Jacobs said she will work with it one possible performance dates.
Edwards told the board that Green Wave Computer Recycling of Indianapolis has delivered pallets and boxes to the garage at the district office and that she has been accepting televisions and other electronics for recycling for about two weeks. The board had approved a contract with Green Wave at its October meeting for recycling services at a cost of $249 per pick up with a 12-cent per pound fee for CRT glass screens.
Televisions, computers and other electronic items can be dropped off at the district office during its regular office hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Wednesday.
Edwards also said she is working on getting quotes from a variety of companies for Tox Away Day in an effort to save money and inquiring about the possibility of holding the event in the Jay County High School parking lot instead of at East Jay Middle School.
In other business, the board:
•Transferred $1,200 from the Tox Away Day fund to the advertising fund balance the funds as the end of the fiscal year approaches.
•Heard a suggestion from Carter Leonard, a member of the district’s citizens advisory committee, that new the board seek new CAC members from the service groups that volunteer at recycling trailers on Saturdays. Board members indicated that they would do so.
•Approved bonuses of $850 for Jacobs and $500 from Edwards, who took over her position in August after Freda Corwin’s resignation.
•Heard from Edwards that the district brought in $26,955 in tipping fees at Jay County Landfill. Board members approved paying claims of $13,961.33, which left its checking account at $233,901.87 and its savings account at $248.350.60.
•Approved its meeting schedule for 2016. The board will continue to meet at 3:30 p.m. on the fourth Monday of each month at the district office, 5948 W. Indiana 67, Portland.
•Learned from Jacobs that she will represent the district at the Jay County Soil and Water Conservation District annual meeting Feb. 24 and the Jay County REMC expo on April 9. She also plans to host another rain barrel workshop in April.