Grants approved

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Local teachers will be getting nearly $3,000 for recycling-related projects.

Jay County Solid Waste Management District’s board approved six education grants totaling $2,989.97 at its meeting Monday.

The grant total nearly doubled the amount the district gave in its inaugural year of the grant program in 2016, when it approved three requests for a total of $1,600. It had budgeted $5,000 for grants this year.

The largest of the grants was for $900 to General Shanks and Judge Haynes elementary schools for performances by the Dumpster Drummers. The Fort Wayne-based group teaches about recycling through music.

West Jay Middle School tech teacher Kyle Love was approved for $736.31 to fund a project in which students will create a robotics materials sorter to separate trash from recyclables. He was also approved for a $451.23 grant for a similar project at East Jay Middle School.

WJMS also received a $662.16 grant to place uniform recycling bins in all classrooms, computer labs, offices and conference rooms at the school.

Other grants included $122.93 to Redkey and Bloomfield elementary teacher Shalee Myron for games from Peacable Kingdom, a company that has a “green commitment,” and $117.28 for glow-in-the-dark skeletons for the Jay County High School drama department to hang in October at haunted trails sponsored by Portland Morning Optimist Club.

Board members Jeanne Houchins, Mike Leonhard, Doug Inman, Randy Geesaman, Tom Johnson, Bill Gibson and Chuck Huffman decided to hold off on plans to fix an area of the Marsh supermarket parking lot where recycling trailers are placed each Saturday.

Expressing concern about uncertainty with the site following last week’s announcement that the Marsh store will close May 14, they said they’d like to have a long-term use agreement in place with the lot’s owner, Iprop Portland LLC, before moving for forward with any repairs. They also discussed the possibility of looking for another site.

In other business, the board:

•Agreed to pay Dunkirk’s Delta Theta Tau sorority $125, the same rate as last year, for emptying recycling bins at the soccer fields at Freeman Scout Complex.

•Decided to have billboards posted on U.S. 27 south of Bryant and on the south side of Portland, Indiana 26 East of the city and at the intersection of Indiana 67 and county road 200 South beginning in September to promote its Tox Away Day event. Last year one of their billboards was located just east of Redkey on Indiana 67, but that space was already claimed for this year.

•Approved, with Houchins abstaining, the purchase of a new computer, monitor and Windows 10 update from Progressive Office Products in Portland at a total cost of $800.

•Heard a request from its citizens’ advisory council to encourage those participants in events like free landfill day to make sure truck beds are covered when traveling. Board members said they would include that information in advertising in the future.

•Because of a lack of business, decided to eliminate having the office open on Thursday evenings.

•Paid $15,106.18 in claims. The district brought in $18,047.57 in tipping fees in March on 10,413 pounds dumped at Jay Count Landfill. It now has a balance of $454,245.66.