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.