District pays bonuses

Jay County Solid Waste Management District paid bonuses to the groups that work at its recycling trailers and took steps to make sure county residents know about the service.
The district board at its meeting Monday approved $7,229.60 — 1 cent per pound — for 2015 collections.
The largest bonus — $1,016.40 — went to West Jay Optimist Club for working at the recycling trailer in Dunkirk. Bloomfield Elementary’s parent-teacher organization got $911.80.
Overall recycling numbers were down throughout the county in 2015, with 722,960 pounds of items collected. That marked a drop of about 95,000 pounds from 2014.
The lone site in the county to see an increase last year was Salamonia, which was up by 7,360 pounds.
The district board had already planned several projects to increase awareness and collections, and took steps Monday to move some of those plans forward.
Board members Jeanne Houchins, Doug Inman, Jim Zimmerman and Bill Gibson, with Randy Geesaman, Gene Ritter and Faron Parr absent, approved spending up to $3,500 to mail flyers to all Jay County residents. The flyers include the schedule for Saturday morning recycling trailers, a list of what items are and are not accepted, and details about other services the district offers.
District educator Bettie Jacobs said it will cost about $2,000 to mail about 9,000 flyers, but she had not yet gotten quotes on printing costs.
Jacobs also told the board she has ordered signs, which will list their hours, to post at each of the recycling trailers.
In other business, the board:
•Heard Jacobs will be speaking to Portland Evening Optimist Club on Monday, will have a booth at the Jay County REMC Expo in April and plans to hold a rain barrel workshop April 14. She has booked presentations at five of the county’s eight elementary schools.
She also told the board she has received applications from Redkey and Westlawn elementary schools for grants to support recycling-related programs. The deadline to apply is Feb. 28.
•Re-elected Jeanne Houchins president and Doug Inman vice president.
•Heard from Terry Robbins, who had previously visited a county commissioners meeting to voice his concern about the cost of using Jay County Landfill. Waste Management, which runs the landfill, is in charge of setting those rates, but did not have a representative at the meeting. Robbins was advised to either contact Waste Management directly or attend the waste district’s February meeting.
•Learned from Edwards that the district brought in tipping fees of $19,017 at Jay County Landfill this month. It also paid claims totaling $26,004.23, giving it a combined balance of $482,743.73 in its checking and savings accounts.