- I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Board of Directors of the Waste Reduction District of
- Monroe County. Mr. Blassen, would you please call the roll? Pete Montsmith? Here. Thomas? Here. Wilts?
- Jones? Ellis? On Zoom here, our team here. Thank you. Thompson? Here.
- I have a quorum present in the room and one member on teams. All right. Thank you very much. And I'd
- like to extend a welcome to our newest member, William Ellis from the Elstville town council, who is
- joining us on teams today. Welcome to the board. Thank you. I was actually on my way to get there, but
- it's best I just joined the team so I'm not late.
- So, executive committee meeting minutes are provided in the packet just for your information. Next,
- we have approval of board of director meeting minutes. Do I have a motion? I move to approve the board
- of director meeting minutes. I'm sorry, I move to approve the meeting minutes. February 12th? Yes, on
- February 12th, 2026. Second.
- All right, we will do a roll call vote on those meeting minutes, please. Mr. McClassen. Thomas? Yes.
- Ellis? Abstain. Steven Smith? Yes. Madeira? Yes. Thompson? Yes. Motion passes, four ayes, one abstention.
- All right, let's move to the controllers report. We'll start with the cash flows. We have control.
- or Teresa Gons here on Teams. Take it away. On page seven of the board packet, you will find the cash
- flow summary. The balance is as of the February 28th of this year is operating $4,892,370.63. Debt service
- is $101.46. Capital is $46,174.01.
- Landfill post closure is $828,373.86. Are there any questions on the balance account balances? Any questions
- about the cash balances? I have one question. It's more for our new member because we did talk about
- this late last year. The balance on the debt service account is very low.
- And we expect to have to borrow from Operating Right to cover that account this year. Could Mr. McClassen,
- you want to? Yes. And this is a result of the way that the refinancing and the amortization was scheduled
- and the way that the state does the debt service budgeting. And we are approaching the end of our debt
- term. The final payment is due in February of 2027.
- And so the State Board of Accounts has budgeted the debt service tax so that the tax disbursement for
- December of 2027 will balance the fund. So for the fall payment this year and the February payment of
- 27, in all likelihood, we will be loaning money from the operating fund to the debt service fund to
- cover those expenses.
- And then the tax disbursements in June and December of 27 should make the fund whole. Thank you for
- reviewing that for us. And we're joined by Councillor Wilson. Welcome. We'll move on to payroll and
- claims. Oh, we can't hear you, Teresa. Teresa, we can't hear you. Can she hear us?
- think that she can. Teresa, you're muted. You're muted, Teresa. You're muted. Sorry about that. Okay.
- On page 14 of the packet, you have a summary of the pre-approved payroll claims and since our last meeting,
- an amount of $190,059 and 14 cents.
- The backup for those numbers are on pages 15 through 47. The payroll and claims for approval this week
- were sent in an email on Wednesday in the amount of $113,296.43. Documentation was included in the Wednesday
- email. This brings the total of the payroll and claims that we are recommending for approval to $303,355.57.
- Are there any questions regarding the claims?
- Are there any questions for our controller? I have a quick question. So looking at this separate document
- that's posted on the meeting page for the 312 board packet claims approval dated March 11th, it says
- claims process week of February 9th. I know that too, that must be a typo. That's gotta be a typo.
- I think that's a function of reusing document templates over and over and not updating the proper date
- sequence on that. So that would be, no wait, I'm sorry, that would be, that is correct because that
- is the date range for the claims that are included in the meeting packet, the claims process since the
- previous meeting. Well, that word's missing.
- Because it says these are the claims processed the week of and it's not it's since the week of them.
- That's that was I was reading the I was I was the line above you. I'm sorry. Yeah, so I don't know why
- it says that it should say the week of March 9th. Yeah, I was going to say this should be the secondary.
- OK, I'm going to I'm going to go ahead and make a motion to approve payroll claims including the pre
- approved pair claims and payroll and
- that which was sent in our email and is in the packet for a total of $303,355.57. A second. All right.
- We have a motion on the table and a second. So I'll need to sign a check today for the orange bags.
- Is that right? If claims are approved, yes. If they're approved. And what is that, $89,000 something?
- $89,303.39.
- And for the benefit of the public, could you just review that we get a lot of that money back because
- we sell these to vendors who sell them to people who use them? Correct. This is our purchase of the
- bags from the manufacturer. Those bags are then distributed, sold to the local retailers that are listed
- on our website for residents to purchase the bags for their waste disposal. And the current
- The current fee established for the bags is $15 for a roll of 10 33 gallon bags and $12.50 for a roll
- of 20 13 gallon bags and the the vendors that resale those bags for us pay 5% I get a 5% discount off
- that price to cover their overhead administrative fees for providing that service for us.
- Great, thank you for reviewing that for us. Let's go to the public. Is there any member of the public
- who would like to comment on payroll and claims? Seeing none, we'll come back for a roll call vote,
- please, Mr. McClassen. Ellis? Yes. Madera? Yes. Thomas? Yes. Wilts? Yes.
- Thompson. Yes. Motion passes unanimous. All right. Moving right along, we will move to the Community
- Grant Program of 2026.
- and we had one applicant, I believe. We did. I apologize. I tried to get pulled up here. So on page
- 48 of the meeting packet, have a memo summarizing where we are with the grant applications. If you recall,
- this is a new program for us. This is the first year that we've done this. And we did unfortunately
- only receive one application for the grant program. It is included in the packet.
- along with the rubric that was created to review and in essence score those applications based on the
- criteria set out in the program. And this has been reviewed and discussed and reviewed by the CAC. I
- believe their rubric is also included in the packet. CAC Chair Matt Austin is also here if anybody wishes
- hear his comments or ask him any questions about the CAC's review of that. I guess I'll stop there until
- we get to part B. All right. So we have one great proposal from Community Health Hygiene Pantry for
- the purchase of sustainable monthly products for women.
- or people who menstruate. And any questions from directors? Yes, Councillor Williams. Yes, I see that
- you provided the rubric and scored this application at 26 out of 30. Could you just briefly let us know
- how that process worked? Did people individually
- score, and then confer, or did you confer and put this together as a group? So, yeah, we each individually.
- Could you please state your name? I'm sorry, Matthew Austin, chair of the CAC. We discussed each question,
- and then we scored individually, verbally, and then I averaged those scores after typing them out, so
- that's what you would see here. Okay. So most of the time we scored the same.
- but there were a couple of times and I just rounded up in that case or down accordingly. Great,
- thank you. Ms. Piedmont-Smith, if I could, I'm interject real fast. I just discussed this with the CAC
- in full disclosure for the board. I did not participate in the CAC's discussions of this. I do know
- the submitter of the application, so I'm constrained from input.
- into the review of this and would also note for the board's information, I believe that Ms. Lemieux
- who submitted the application is on Teams if you ask any questions of her. Oh, great. Okay. Thank you.
- Are there any other questions about this application or comments?
- I don't have a question. I just wanted to enthusiastically support this very innovative application.
- It's not was not on my radar as the type of application we would receive. But kudos. I think it kind
- of hits the mark on sustainability that we want to see in the community. And I'm excited to support it.
- Yes, in the scoring sheet, the first question is innovation. Does the project implement new ideas, methods,
- or products? And it scored a three out of five. I mean, I can understand that if you think of new ideas
- in the general realm of things. But certainly, for our district, this is a very new idea, at least I've
- never heard.
- of this way of promoting sustainability with the menstrual product. So I think it is exciting. Yes,
- Mr. Austin. We were taking it more as these products have been around for a while, so they are not a
- new product. But as for the idea, yes, I agree. Thank you for that distinction. It also has the benefit
- of avoiding harm to existing
- wastewater systems as well. Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, before we vote, let's go to the public. Is there any
- member of the public who would like to comment on this grant application? I would like to. Mr. Austin,
- I don't know if you're considered a member of the public for this purpose, but go ahead. It was interesting
- because the members of the CSC are all male, so we felt kind of, you know,
- unusual commenting on this, but having multiple humans that menstruate in my life that have switched
- to these types of products and the benefits that they have seen, for me it was a no-brainer, especially
- with the social equity aspect of it, the individuals in our community that are gonna be benefiting from
- this. It just, once again, just seemed like a real no-brainer to support this. And as Commissioner Walts
- said, yeah, wholeheartedly and enthusiastically.
- All right, thank you. Any other member of the public? Seeing none. As Mr. McLaughlin said, this is Robin
- Lemieux. I'm actually the applicant. So if you have any questions, please bring those forward. OK. Did
- you want to say anything or just be available for questions? Just available for questions unless you
- want me to say something. OK. Well, are there any questions for Ms. Lemieux?
- I'm wondering if you have had any requests for these types of products. Yeah, absolutely. Our clientele
- generally can't afford things like this. So to be able to put that in their hands on so many different
- levels, the social equity aspect, the sustainability aspect would just be amazing. Well, thank you for
- the application.
- I guess we need to get a motion on the table to approve this grant award of $3,000 if somebody would
- like to do that. The approval of the submitted grant application for $3,000. Second. Mr. McClassen,
- will you please call the roll? Thompson? Yes. Madera? Yes. Ellis? Yes.
- Thompson? I'm sorry, Thomas? Yes. Piedmont Smith? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Congratulations,
- Ms. Lemieux. I don't know how to pronounce her last name. Thank you so, so much. Ms. Lemieux, I will
- be in touch to do grant agreements and formalize the process and the award. Very good. OK, thank you
- so much. We truly, truly appreciate it. You are welcome.
- Now the second part of this topic on our agenda is about the use of the $17,000 that we have left available
- for this community grant line. Mr. McClassen? Yeah, and that was discussed by the CAC at their meeting
- noting that the application that was just awarded was a request for $3,000 and we had $20,000 budgeted
- for the year for this program.
- And the CAC wanted to request, recommend of the board that they reopen the application process to see
- if there might be opportunities to make the rest or to use the rest of that appropriation before the
- year is out. And what do board members think of this proposal to have a second round? I would support
- it. Let's do the most good we can.
- that would support it perhaps with some boost in marketing? Yeah, and I think that's something that
- staff learned from this first effort at doing this, that we need to look at additional ways and avenues
- to promote this program and make potential applicants aware of the funding that's now available.
- Um, the originally when we discussed the process for applications, the idea was that I believe we were
- awarding for a calendar year. That's why we were trying to get it done real quick.
- Correct, and if we open this up for a second round of applications, I mean, that is something we'll
- have to be conscious of and clear with the potential applicants that, you know, the reimbursement with
- grant dollars for any programs that are approved will have to happen in time for those funds
- to be distributed by the district before the end of the year. Okay, so that will remain in place.
- Yeah, I was thinking maybe May 15th. I was thinking that the earliest date possible that would still
- allow us to do publicity would be ideal. The CAC had said maybe a July deadline, but that seems like
- it really cuts down on the number of months they could use the money.
- I think make it potentially work that would give us about a 30 day window to have applications open
- to get those back and have time for the CAC and the executive committee to review things before. I would
- select whatever deadline it is to be like a week before the CAC meeting of that month, right? Does that
- make sense? So you're not waiting a month or three weeks? Okay. I don't know what that data is off top
- of my head.
- week after the April board meeting. I don't know the exact date off the top of my head either. Really
- close to what we just said. So the April board meeting is on the 9th. So April 16th is the CAC meeting.
- Wouldn't it be May though? Yeah. There you go.
- What would you like for a deadline like the 14th or 15th? Does that give you enough time? I'll look
- at it, possibly even the Monday before the CAC meeting might work. I'll schedule and just need time
- to get things together and in order to get them over to the CAC for their meeting packet and have them
- to have time to review. Okay, so we don't have to decide on a deadline right now or just general it'll
- be in May.
- If the board wishes to leave the deadline up to staff, yeah, we can certainly work with the CAC and
- make sure. And so we're talking about the May CAC meeting, so I'm assuming that the board is wanting
- to see a second round of applications at their June meeting to consider. Yes, do we need a motion and
- a vote on that? Probably. Yes, I would prefer that.
- Would somebody like to make a motion to have a second round of grant proposals? So moved. Second. It's
- moved and seconded to use the remaining $17,000 for a second round of grant proposals. Mr. McGlasson,
- could you please call the roll? Thomas? Yes. Thompson? Yes. Wilts? Yes. Pete Monsmith? Yes.
- Yes. Adira? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. All right, great. Thank you to the CAC for their help with
- the grant program. Now we have an update on the Back to Earth apartment composting program. Yeah, if
- the board will recall at the end of last year, Mr. Wenia, Joe Wenia from One Sustainable Joe, advised
- that he was moving out of state.
- I would not be able to continue the back to earth apartment composting program beyond the current at
- that time the current agreement term which expired on December the 31st. So the district agreed to assume
- responsibility for that program specifically for the two the two new newer complexes that had joined
- into the program and we're still under their 12 month partner period that I believe will run
- through the beginning of November of this year. So we've done that. And in addition to that, have also
- done some service and consulting education with existing participants in the program that are beyond
- their partner period.
- do have at the meeting here, Operations Director Joey Long and Waste Reduction Specialist Kayla Strand
- who have done the bulk of that work and would ask them to provide the board an update on their experience
- so far with that and how we see the program moving forward. All right, do we have Mr. Long or Ms. Strand
- is available?
- them both online. I'm here. Okay Mr. Long go ahead. So yes we've uh we've been doing a lot of repairs
- uh we found some construction issues where they're as they fill up they're being pressed apart and overused
- so I mean in a way it's good because we're getting a lot of
- A lot of people use the program, but we have to go out and educate them on how to turn the stuff and
- move the stuff to different bins. It's been a lot more involved on the repairs than what we thought
- was going to be. We would like to see where the district could. Our part would be to help set new places
- up and somebody at each site would take over.
- doing repairs and that stuff. And we would be there as a backup to do the education and maybe show somebody
- how to do repairs of what we found helps. But we, it's just, it's, it's a full-time position to have
- somebody there doing all this stuff. And I'll let Kayla go into more about it. Yeah. So the way we have
- it set up right now,
- We're having to kind of monitor each person for each site when they come in, set up their account, send
- them the training, deal with any questions that anyone has from the site lead or from us, manage the
- site leads, manage the turners, get that schedule and keep that operational. And as people leave the
- program, taking them out of the
- email correspondence and keeping up with all of that. And then if they have any issues, we've run into
- recently a lot of the sites are running out of browns. So at the moment we're providing them brown paper
- that we're getting to use on the sites as browns. And I think one of the sites uses straw currently
- that they purchase out themselves.
- So I think the, you know, we've, as Joey just said at the beginning, you know, it's a little bit more
- than we expected what we've gotten ourselves into. But, you know, we're only talking about a handful
- of participating complexes at this time. And that's, Joey referenced some of the repair work and stuff
- that needed to be done. That's a function, a lot of that's a function of using untreated wood, which
- we have to do. You can't use treated wood.
- for compost that you're going to put in gardens and stuff. But, you know, some of that was just also
- the material, the fastening materials and things that were used and we can get through that stuff.
- You know, but I think that in our discussions internally, you know, we would anticipate trying to continue
- the program as it has been run by one sustainable Joe.
- and look to recruit new participants, talking about expanding beyond just apartment composts, maybe
- apartment complexes, you know, looking at businesses, schools, other types of entities that might produce
- large amounts of compostable material. But then the question becomes, you know, at what point is it,
- What is the number of participants where it's no longer sustainable at our current staffing and budgeting
- levels? And we don't necessarily have that answer at this time, but I think, you know, we discussed
- this briefly with the executive committee at their last meeting and, you know, I think the thought was
- that, you know, if we're going to continue this on in its current form,
- We kind of need to have a hard end on that partner period and where, you know, somebody, you know, if
- you're talking about an apartment complex, well, their maintenance team needs to assume responsibility
- for maintaining the bins, you know, or residents that, you know, have the ability would take on that
- responsibility and the cost, you know, of doing that, so.
- But like I said, this is not really something we're asking a decision for the board on at this time,
- just an update of our experience over the last couple of months since we've assumed responsibility for
- the program. I'll let you know what we, you know, we plan to continue it, but as we move into this and
- assuming hopefully we do recruit additional participants and the program grows some, you know, we're
- going to have to take a hard look at what we have the capabilities
- Staff wise and financially to do with this program and and how we go about handing off Those participating
- entities the responsibility for continuing it So are you actively recruiting right now for new sites and
- I would defer to Ms. Strand on that. I'm not sure how much of that is occurring, but we've discussed
- doing that. At the moment, I don't think we've actually started recruiting anyone. We have had some
- people interested in it, but because we don't know where we're sitting with the program and we weren't
- sure what the next few months, let alone next year, looked like for it, we weren't recruiting anyone
- for definite on anything. We have had interest.
- but outside of just keeping the ones we have functioning, that's about where we've been sitting for
- the last two or two and a half months. And we've also been waiting to know if we should expand outside
- of apartment complexes, like do we want to do more churches, do we want to do schools, you know, stuff
- like that. Okay, so it sounds like we really do need to make some decisions soon as to
- weather and how we can continue the program to new sites. I mean, it sounds like it's okay to continue
- the 12-month partner period with the two existing sites, right? That seems to me. Yeah, I don't know
- that we need those decisions made today, but I think that we are going to come to the board at some
- point and, you know, with some recommendations for, you know,
- exactly what the terms and criteria and conditions are for the continuation of the program. So, will
- you maybe come with a proposal next month or in April or May? Well, I think that's hard to answer because
- I think we need to get some more participants involved in the program and grow it a little bit and to
- get a better idea of
- what we're capable of managing at what volume of participants. We're at a handful, six or seven participants
- right now, and if it stayed there, it wouldn't be much of a burden on the district to continue with
- all of them. But again, the whole idea when we put out the RFP and ultimately contracted with One Sustainable
- Joe to get this program started,
- you know, was that it would be a kickstart thing and that the participants would eventually
- assume responsibility and control of their own composting program. We just never set firm deadlines
- on when that handoff occurred. Okay. I mean, it just sounds to me that some decision needs to be made.
- I mean, either you're recruiting new people or you're not. And Ms. Tran said that you're not, she's
- not because of the uncertainties.
- Well, I guess I see the point. If we're going to recruit somebody new, we want to have that deadline
- in place when they agree to start the program at their facility. Well, we have a deadline. We just haven't
- been enforcing it. I mean, the deadline is 12 months. Oh, well, I'm sorry. Ms. Thomas, do you have?
- Oh, sorry. Go ahead. I think in this discussion, Mr. Long, Ms. Strand, and I left out a key component
- of this that
- One sustainable Joe was continuing to service the participants outside of the partner period for a cost.
- We do not have a fee structure in place currently for us to recoup any costs that we do for
- those participants outside of the partner period. And I think we would potentially be in a position
- to come back to the board next month
- with some proposed revisions to the fee schedule to implement such a mechanism. I think Mr.
- Long and Mr. Persifield, who's not with us, have done enough repair work that we could put together,
- obviously materials are what they are, but, you know, potentially some time estimates for time cost
- that would be appropriate.
- to charge those entities outside of the partner period. Oh, Mr Long or Commissioner Thomas, you want
- to go first? Yeah, I don't want I don't think this is a good place to have this conversation to debate
- anything, but a good conversation is helpful and I appreciate it. I think for me, what I would say is
- let's. Tell the district employees staff Tom what we
- want them to come back with. And what I would say is, do you want to add to the program? Do you need
- a fee schedule? Do you need better language to set a deadline and then to establish those costs? If
- you are wishing to expand, where else could you expand? And I would recommend you consider subdivisions
- that have an HOA.
- I recommend, yes, institutional settings, which means churches, schools, et cetera. I think it could
- be a wide, broadcast wide in terms of, yeah, go ahead and ask. Let's see if we can make it work. I think
- we always limited ourselves when we started with the apartment thing, and it certainly is not something
- we have a lot of in the county. So it would actually make the reach further out.
- So that's what I would ask for. If you really do want to expand, is it worth doing? How much, you know,
- can we cover the costs with a fee? What is that fee? You know, those are the questions I would have
- to have you all discussed internally and bring back to us with a proposal. Yeah, that makes sense. I
- just want a quick correction. So you said that you don't have a lot of apartments in the county, but
- the city is in the county. So we do.
- a lot of apartments. No, but I do mean outside the city, there aren't a lot of apartments. And so they
- would make it a broader spread. And I don't know if that's something you want. That's my point, right?
- Because if you go to a subdivision, that subdivision may be miles from city center or from the location
- of the waste production district offices, right? And so we want to take that. Is it proximity to rural
- sites? Is it, you know,
- Geographically, is there anything that limits where you go? That's my point. And I would just note that,
- you know, for this year, funding is not an issue. We did when we went through the budget process for
- this year, we were unaware of Mr. Winnia's plans. So we do have the funds budgeted to enter into a new
- agreement with Mr. Winnia.
- Uh, that the city had also agreed to contribute, uh, funding to that they have budgeted, uh,
- spoken with, uh, the city a little bit about that and how the, how we transfer those funds becomes a
- little different because when we sign it, when we entered in an agreement with one sustainable Joe with
- a set cost and presented that to the city, they were able to release the funds. Well, if, uh, we, we
- don't really have, you know, how we're going to, uh, it's document
- our expenses related to this to submit to the city to get reimbursed is something we have to figure
- out. But at any rate, the same funding that has been in place in previous years is in place for this
- year. But to that end, since the 27 budget cycle is quickly approaching, it is something we would need
- to get some clarification, some answers on.
- you know, by the summer when we start to look at preparing next year's budget. Okay, Mr. Long, did you
- want to add something you had your hand up? Yeah, I was just gonna say we do have current customers
- that we are that's out of the agreement that we are doing maintenance on and repairs and education.
- Uh, so we do have, I think, two right now that we are currently meeting with and doing maintenance with.
- that are outside of the contract period? Yes. Okay. Okay, well, maybe we could have a proposal from
- the staff April or May. I think we can bring some information and proposals slash recommendations to
- the board next month. Any final comments on that?
- Then we will move on to the CAC report. Mr. Austin. Matthew Austin, Chair of the CAC. Pretty simple.
- This is the first meeting of the year, so we had officer elections with the result of Chair Matthew
- Austin, Vice Chair Brad Lucas, Secretary John Arnold.
- And as we discussed already, we discussed the grant application went through the rubric with each CAC
- member verbally scoring. The response is recorded and transferred to the rubric for presentation to
- the board. And as stated earlier, the CAC looks favorably on the grant application and recommends the
- Board of Directors approve and fund it. And then we also finished by discussing reopening the grant
- application to allow more applicants to apply. The CAC supports reopening the grant application to request
- the Board of Directors consider this. So pretty simple and fast.
- We have four members now, and three were present. And they all got roles assigned to them, didn't they?
- Yes. Well, unfortunately, Brad Lucas wasn't there. He had a hospital emergency. Oh, here. Yeah,
- was in the ER. Are there any ideas or plans to recruit more members? We're always trying with the last
- year going to the
- farmer's market. I think I collected seven or eight e-mails and we tried to correspond and nobody responded
- to those e-mails. I don't know how the gentleman, Joe Sears, ended up finding out. I know he was on
- the CAC previously at the beginning in the 90s. He was on the original CAC. He is currently employed
- with the public services and so we reached out
- to both Republic and RUMKEY to see about getting representatives from those entities on the CAC. So
- other than what we tried last year, nothing new comes up outside of me presenting it at the Commission
- on Sustainability, maybe the Environmental Commission, but any other ideas are more than welcome.
- I assume the district will have a table at Earth Day again this year. We could try that way as well.
- I would need to check with Miss Pull Crawl. There's a number of events that are scheduled and some conflict
- and overlap, but we will get as many of those as we can, so. Yeah, let's push CAC service at those as
- much as we can. Maybe the ones that we can't get to, CAC would like to represent that. There we go.
- We can look at that as well.
- I'd be happy to. Thank you, Mr. Austin. Thank you. Any other questions? No. All right. Department reports.
- Mr. McClassen. Okay. Well, last legislative update of the year. The session is over. But beginning on
- page 58 of your packet, do you have a memo that I've removed those bills that
- that were no longer moving and had no chance to make it into law and followed the language of a couple
- of those, I guess, and there was some opportunity or hope for that language to get amended to other
- bills, but that never did happen. House Bill 1003, I guess the section relevant to districts had to do with
- The original version of that bill called for eliminating the Indiana Recycling Market Development Board.
- An amendment removed that language so that board will remain or should remain in place. The deadline
- for the governor's signature on that bill or veto was today.
- Today, we will know if that's been signed into law, vetoed, or passed into law without signature.
- And then, I need to find my notes here. On Senate Bill 91, which was a needle exchange program that
- did make it through both houses, and on March the 10th, it became public law 144 without the governor's
- signature.
- but that did did make it through. The Senate Bill 163 on the various property tax matters. With that
- one we were just watching just curious you know there was language in there about you know extending
- or eliminating some some of the credits
- And just with everything that happened with Senate Bill 1 and still trying to wrap our heads around
- all of that and then having another tax matters bill, you know, we were watching that. So it did, was
- signed by the governor on March 5th, public law 114. And the final version that was passed did extend
- some neighborhood enhancement
- district and affordable and workforce housing credits that were set to expire. It did direct the local
- Department of Local Government finance to prepare a report looking at creating an automated valuation
- system for local assessors to use and required that report to identify alternatives to the annual adjustment
- and trending process and the viability of using cost tables. So it's kind of curious we're still
- Still trying to figure out what all that means for the district as a property taxing entity on top of
- everything that happened with Senate Bill 1 last year that is being phased in over three years. So that
- was our reason for watching that one. And then Senate Bill 277, let's see, did get signed into law
- last week by the governor. The sections of that relevant to solid waste districts, the bill eliminated
- the section of code that directs districts to conduct educational programs related to e-waste recycling.
- It doesn't mean that we can't do it, but it's no longer a requirement for districts to do so. It also
- changed some of the language regarding
- the rules on the adoption and implementation of solid waste management district plans that supposed
- to provide some more flexibility regarding what the plans must include and how they're implemented and
- it also one of the big one of the big changes just throughout that section of the code it changed a
- lot of shalls to may one of which is that the legislative
- Indiana Legislative Council may require an interim committee to determine whether changes are needed.
- I think previously it was in every two or three-year review that was required, so now that's a may.
- That's where the bills that we were watching wound up for this session, and we will continue
- the implementation of those and see what the impact that those have on the district. So then beyond
- that continuing in the memo we did apply for another waste tire grant this year and have been notified
- that we will in all likelihood receive that an amount of ten thousand dollars so we have tentatively scheduled
- Our next waste tire amnesty for Monroe County residents for May 16th. So be on the lookout for confirmation
- of that and scheduling times for that event. It would again be at the Monroe County Fairgrounds. The
- ordering website for compost bins and rain barrels is up. We anticipate having the ordered items available
- for pickup beginning on April the 24th.
- I attended the Indian University Environmental Resilience Institute's Sustainability and Resilience
- Conference last month. I participated in a panel discussion on brownfields to brightfields where I talked
- about the project we're looking at to do solar panels at the landfill. Landfills would be considered
- a brownfield and a brightfield would be where you have renewable energy on that. So it was interesting.
- It was a good conference.
- an interesting panel to be a part of. And then lastly, all of our annual reporting requirements in Gateway,
- all were submitted ahead of their deadline and the annual financial report was published as required
- in the Herald Times newspaper on March 6. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Mr. McClasson. Are
- there any questions from board members?
- Going back to the legislation on syringe exchange, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about
- how that impacts the waste reduction district and activities you all do. It's probably not something
- that has a direct impact on solid waste districts, but as one of the few
- entities or places in the county that accepts to use syringes for disposal that is, you know, those
- types of programs, laws that affect those programs are things that we watch. But, you know, we don't
- work with the entities that participate or manage any of the local needle exchange programs with the
- needles that they collect. You don't? No. Okay.
- So unlikely then that really anything impacts? No, I don't anticipate any impact from that bill to the
- district. It's just something that we watch because it's related to a program that we have. Yeah. Okay.
- Thank you. Mr. McGlasson, could you please send the annual financial report and the SB 131 report to
- I'm sorry, explain those? No, send them to us so we have a copy of it. Certainly we can do that. I apologize.
- Or is it on the website somewhere? I don't know that I have them on the website yet, but that is planned.
- If you could make those available to the public and to board members? Yeah, we have to get them up on
- the website.
- So we will do that, and I will email the board with links when those are available. All right,
- thank you. Any other questions for Mr. McClassen? No, but I'm going to have to leave soon, so we're
- going to lose quorum. All right, we'll do what we can. Let's move on to Mr. Long. Recycling reuse. Yeah,
- I will start with the recycling reuse. I gave you guys some numbers for the first month of last year
- versus the first month of this year.
- Our total recycling tons has went up. The total hauls has went down, so that's a great improvement.
- The orange bag pools, the same has went down. For the mountain tonnage, the bulky items, large item
- drop off, the total pools has also went down, so we're making great changes that way. The household
- hazardous waste, the mature, they're operating as normal.
- And the rural sites, I reached out to Rumpke representative about the hefty orange bag program. I was
- told that there was going to be a representative trying to be there today, but I don't think he made
- it. I can do my best to answer some questions on the hefty program. And the entire MSD today there will
- be signs and
- posted at all sites tomorrow about information on it. And I will do my best to answer any questions
- you guys have about any of that. Thank you, Mr. Long. Just for clarity, signs posted about what? The
- entire Amnesty Day on the dates, the whereabouts, and what we accept. Thank you. Mr. Long, the table
- that's in your memo to us, is that just for the month of January? That is. Okay, so for one month.
- We had 60 cycles. Yeah, I plan on trying to do that maybe ever quarterly. That way the public can see
- it. You guys can have it. That way we can show the progress that we're making on trying to reduce the
- amount of halls. OK, great. Commissioner Thomas, do you have to go or can we hear a little bit from
- Lee Paulson? Let's go. OK, Mr. Paulson, let's go. Thank you.
- Lee Paulson, landfill director of environmental compliance. The only thing I would highlight with my
- report that is there is that our treatment plan is back up and operating. We're finally able to get
- a replacement valve to get that going. And then the cold weather and the wet weather all hit us kind
- of like back to back. So we are getting up to speed, up to speed, but everything is going well. The
- new valve is doing well.
- And now with some better weather, we're trying to get out and hit some roads and get some cleanup going
- on because there's quite a bit of trash out there. Marybeth and Rick are both encouraging the adopter
- road groups to try to get out there while trash is very visible and trying to get some people out and
- get out and get to it. So we're hoping that we're kind of through the fake spring that we kind of have
- right now.
- not get bamboozled with more cold weather so but um other than that if you guys have any questions uh
- the report is there oh and we haven't heard anything back from our ground november groundwater uh from
- item yet so i'm still waiting to hear back from them okay great any questions for mr paulson okay we'll
- move to general public comment is there any member of the public who would like to comment on general
- items uh for the district
- Seeing none, do any members of the board of directors have comments? All right, again, just welcome
- to Mr. Ellis and hopefully we'll see you in person at the next board meeting and we are adjourned. Thank you.