[0:00] - Okay, seeing as we have a quorum, I'll call to order this meeting of the Waste Reduction District of
[0:10] - Monroe County Board of Directors for Thursday, October 8th, 2026. Mr. McClassen, will you please call
[0:21] - the roll? Edmund Smith. Thomas? Yes. Wilkes? Here. Jones? L? Thompson?
[0:30] - You have a quorum all four present in the room. Thank you. So for your information, we've included the
[0:41] - executive committee meeting minutes in the packet from August 4th and September 1st. Are there any questions
[0:52] - or comments about those? There's a typo on packet page three. Minor.
[1:00] - It's it says insured instead of ensued. It is under. Find it again. It's under the discussion of resolution
[1:21] - 2026-09. Yes. And we get that corrected Mr.
[1:31] - Do you see it? On page three of the package you said? Yes. That's under the executive committee minutes?
[1:41] - Yes. Those minutes are as approved by the executive committee. We didn't catch it. Sorry. I think the
[1:51] - meaning can be guessed though.
[1:58] - We'll move on to the minutes of the board of directors meeting from August 13th, 2026. We did not have
[2:08] - a meeting in September. So these are the most recent board meeting minutes. Are there any comments or
[2:18] - corrections? All right. We get a motion please. Move to approve the board meeting minutes.
[2:28] - Okay we have a motion and a second. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right that
[2:38] - passes. Next we'll move on to the controller's report and we'll start with the cash flows that were
[2:48] - emailed out yesterday Mr. Arnold. Okay on the operating budget is the end of September
[2:56] - $5,163,328.66. The debt service fund was $241.76. And the capital fund was $1,057.03. And the landfill
[3:12] - post closure report was $838,048.53. Are there any questions?
[3:24] - Are there any questions from members of the board about the cash flow statement? Okay, we can move on
[3:35] - to the payroll and claims, please. Okay, on page 25 of the packet, there's a summary of the claims.
[3:47] - Since our last meeting, claims of $365,866.73 has been approved. And there was no payroll this last
[4:02] - week, but we had claims of $76,012.21 for a total amount of $441.
[4:15] - All right, that was seconded by Commissioner Madeira. I don't know if we can hear her from where she's
[4:28] - sitting, but thank you for putting that motion on the table. Are there any questions about the payroll
[4:41] - and claims? I'll note that
[4:45] - The claims that were emailed yesterday included $65,400 for 10 new drop-off containers. So that was
[4:54] - a big purchase, but necessary.
[5:09] - If there are no comments or questions from board members, we'll go to the public. Is there any member
[5:16] - of the public who would like to comment on payroll and claims? There's nobody here in the NatU Hill
[5:23] - Room. I don't see any hands raised online. So do we need to do a roll call for this, or can we do a
[5:30] - voice vote? The voice vote is fine. All in favor of the motion, which is to approve payroll and claims
[5:37] - as presented, say aye.
[5:39] - Aye. Any opposed? All right, thank you, Mr. Arnold. We'll move right along to resolution 202608 for
[5:47] - a public utility easement. Mr. McClassen. Yeah, I'll refer you to the memo on page 107 of the packet.
[5:56] - As you can tell by the number, this is a resolution that's been in the works for a little while now.
[6:04] - We've been working with the National Guard Recruiting Office as well as Duke Energy as a part of the
[6:14] - recently completed renovations to the recruiting center. They did install four EV charging stations.
[6:25] - that the National Guard has indicated will be available to the public. I believe two of them are metered
[6:32] - and will be available for public use. But unfortunately, due to the location of those, in order to get
[6:38] - electric service to those, they need to cross the northeast corner of our property. So that's what this
[6:45] - easement grants is Duke Energy the right to run electrical service through that portion of our property
[6:52] - to these EV charging stations.
[6:57] - All right, can we get a motion on the table, please? Move that we approve resolution 2026-08. Second.
[7:05] - All right, we have a motion and a second. Are there any questions or comments from board members? I
[7:13] - have a question. Yes, Commissioner Thomas. Mr. McClassen, this is not going to impact at all any of
[7:21] - the current operations at the Waste Reduction District.
[7:26] - No, as I mentioned, this is the northeast corner of the property and it is, in essence, a corner of
[7:33] - what right now is just a grass field between a creek that runs just to the north of our building and
[7:41] - our recycling center and the armory. So it's just wanted to verify. Thank you. Any other questions or comments?
[7:54] - Let's go to the public. Is there any member of the public who would like to comment on resolution 2026-08
[8:04] - granting a utility easement to Duke for the National Guard EV charging stations? Seeing none. All those
[8:13] - in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. I believe that passes. Was that four ayes? Very good.
[8:25] - The next resolution is 2026 13 leachate hauling agreement. Yes, and refer to the memo on page 115 of
[8:34] - the packet. As indicated in the memo and since 2019 binafano utilities has been hauling leachate from
[8:44] - the landfill that's generated in excess of what we have the capability to treat on site.
[8:52] - hauling that and disposing of it at the Ellisville wastewater treatment plant. They have asked for a
[9:00] - price increase I think is understandable given fuel costs and the current economic environment. I've
[9:09] - provided in there some information on the city of Bloomington's Dillman Road wastewater treatment plant
[9:17] - and some of the
[9:20] - that were proposed to be imposed on us by CBU back in 2019 that ultimately led us to seek alternatives
[9:29] - for managing that leachate and I think you can see that based on the current industrial waste rate that
[9:38] - they charge which our leachate would be subject to and the hauling rate we were paying to our previous
[9:47] - vendor in 2018
[9:48] - Uh, even with the price increases proposed, we're still seeing the cost savings over, uh, that amount.
[9:57] - All right. Can we get a motion on the table, please regarding this resolution? We have approval of resolution
[10:06] - 20, 26, 13. Second that. Thank you. Are there any comments or questions from directors? I have a question.
[10:15] - Yes. Commissioner Thomas.
[10:18] - It's a little confusing because it appears that the new price to haul is actually $70 for the 4,200
[10:31] - gallon. And then the $200 is the fee that they're charging themselves back to themselves for the actual
[10:45] - treatment.
[10:47] - is that correct? Because it says on page 118, it says that's the price and it says including disposal
[11:05] - fee. But then when you go further into the page 120, it says
[11:17] - under item four that the cost is $200. And then it says this cost shall be itemized separately. But
[11:27] - if it's included in the price of the hauling, I'm not sure I understand why it would be listed separately.
[11:38] - So the hauling is actually 70. So I guess the $270 figure
[11:44] - is for hauling and disposal of leachate from the landfill. Under Exhibit A on 120, that $200 is the
[11:53] - cost for them to bring us what's called a mixed liquor, which is actually a seed load from the Ellisville
[12:04] - treatment plant to the landfill.
[12:07] - Like right now, the water. The other side going back, right? The water treatment plants not running
[12:13] - right now. So when we start that up, we need a seed load. We need a bloat of water that has the bugs
[12:19] - in it for the treatment process. That's that mixed liquor. And that's and that's $200 total, including
[12:26] - hauling. Correct. OK, all right. That makes sense. All right. Thank you for that. Thank you for that
[12:32] - question. That was a good one. I didn't catch that earlier.
[12:46] - Any other questions or comments about the agreement or the resolution? Seeing none, we'll go to the
[12:55] - public. Is there any member of the public who would like to comment on resolution 2026-13 and the attached
[13:05] - agreement? All right, seeing none, I think we can vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed?
[13:17] - All right, that resolution is adopted and we'll enter into that new agreement with Bynum-Fanio. I believe
[13:27] - next we have departmental reports cruising right along here. Yeah, I'm going to start with the administration
[13:37] - report. The memo on page 121 is a report in detail to summarize
[13:43] - the budget was presented at a work session to the county council on september the 16th there were some
[13:51] - some questions you know regarding potential property tax changes that may come down the pike and what
[13:58] - impact that might have on the district's financing and if there would be if the district has considered
[14:06] - requesting any local income tax dollars at this point obviously you know we've
[14:12] - We have not discussed that as a board. But and then some questions regarding the cost of living adjustment.
[14:20] - I believe that we are. Well, I know our budget passed a three point five percent increase. I believe
[14:28] - the county is looking at a two percent increase. So there's some questions about that. But ultimately,
[14:36] - the budget was as presented was moved forward on a six to one vote from the county council. We did have
[14:44] - the public hearing on that on just this past Tuesday the sixth and there was no public comment at the
[14:53] - public hearing on the budget and the council does not vote at that public hearing so it was
[15:01] - it will it awaits adoption on I believe the 20th that sound right but at this point given we're how
[15:12] - things have gone I don't anticipate that there'll be any issues with the budget being adopted
[15:23] - I will let Mr. Paulson report on the waste tire amnesty day. The Association of Solid Waste, Indiana
[15:29] - Solid Waste Management District is having its annual conference next week. We have a number of staff
[15:36] - and CEC members that are planning to attend one or both days of the conference. And then also that last
[15:43] - bullet point under the general updates, kind of want to expand on that a little bit. As I did attend,
[15:49] - a conference put on by Circular Indiana on Monday, and the entire morning was devoted to battery, was
[15:59] - termed EPR, Extended Producer Responsibility, and Representative Miller was in attendance. He has indicated
[16:09] - that he does plan to submit another battery recycling EPR bill as he did last session, this upcoming session,
[16:19] - and is agreeable and in fact kind of requesting working with a number of you know interested parties
[16:29] - including the Association of Solid Waste Districts, Circular Indiana, Professional Battery Manufacturers
[16:39] - Association, Waste Haulers Association. On that bill you know there's
[16:46] - we've seen a lot of these fires. Aside from the you know the environmental importance of battery recycling,
[16:54] - there's a public safety component to this. I think we're of all seen the news reports of some of the
[17:02] - fires that have occurred either in facilities or on vehicles traveling on interstates that are loaded
[17:09] - with predominantly lithium lithium ion batteries and. They do pose a significant hazard if they're not
[17:16] - The bill last year had near unanimous support, really was kind of derailed due to a procedural issue
[17:25] - because it was a short session and because it involved funding that the state would have to make available
[17:34] - to either the battery service organizations or the collection sites.
[17:40] - It needed to go to the Ways and Means Committee, and by the time it got out of the Environmental Affairs
[17:47] - Committee, there was not time for that to happen. So we do anticipate another bill coming this next
[17:55] - session and are hopeful, confident in its ability to move forward and get passed in some way, shape,
[18:03] - or form. Thank you very much for that update.
[18:07] - Are there any questions for Mr. McGlassen about the administration report? All right. We can then move
[18:21] - on to the recycling reuse and hazmat report from Mr. Long. Is he online? Make sure to enable him to
[18:33] - show his video.
[18:36] - It will need Joey Long and Lee Paulson to be able to participate electronically. There is. All right,
[18:45] - hi everyone. I will start off with the recycling and reuse report. We've completed completed another
[18:55] - clothing shipment to Martin County 3850 pounds of clothing, 412 pounds of shoes.
[19:03] - 382 pounds of purses for a grand total of 4,644 pounds. And all that clothing and stuff will be used
[19:11] - in Martin County for their area. What is not taken there will then be shipped out to be recycled. Our
[19:20] - green business network, been working great with our waste reduction specialist, McKenna Conway.
[19:28] - We've had seen an increase in recycling. Some of our businesses are asking for extra pickups throughout
[19:35] - the week for the remaining of the year. So that's a plus. She's been doing a good job meeting with everybody
[19:43] - and increasing our numbers. Our household hazardous waste, our sharps program has really taken off.
[19:50] - We're seeing a lot of people coming in asking for sharps containers for their used needles.
[19:58] - And we are getting a lot back, so we're constantly working with people every day on that. So we're very
[20:06] - happy to report that the sharps program is increasing a lot. The rural sites, we have received all the
[20:14] - new boxes that we paid for. So anybody out of the site should start seeing nice pretty blue boxes showing up.
[20:23] - have good reports on the ones that's already there. You know, people have commented how nice they look
[20:30] - and it's nice seeing the stuff. And with winter coming, we do have some fall parking lot gravel work
[20:36] - planned at the sites. I've been talking to the vendor. We plan on getting the parking lots in the best
[20:42] - shape that we can before all the ice and snow is hit. That's all I have. If you have any questions,
[20:48] - I'll do my best to answer them.
[20:52] - Thank you, Mr. Long. Are there any questions for Mr. Long on the recycling, rural centers, Hazmat? A
[21:01] - quick question. When you talk about improving the lots, the drive-through lots at the rural sites in
[21:09] - advance of winter, is that just gravel? Yeah, it's gravel. Because the ground is soft, we get potholes
[21:18] - quite a bit, so we pack gravel in there.
[21:22] - quite a bit. We do try to degrade it in a way to get the drainage to run off. We are working with that.
[21:30] - We've met with a couple of different vendors at different sites for drainage as the ice and snow melts
[21:39] - where the water's gonna run to. Yes, Councilor Bolts. Thank you. In Martin County, and I think you might
[21:47] - have said this at a different meeting,
[21:51] - is it or what agency is it that we're delivering to? It's Martin County Solid Waste so we actually don't
[21:58] - deliver they come and pick it up so when we have a truckload full they come and pick it up for free
[22:05] - because they don't have as many organizations that can get you get clothing like that so they take it
[22:12] - and go through it and let the surrounding counties down there go through it
[22:18] - And whatever can be reused in that area they take, then they ship off and everything else to be recycled.
[22:24] - All right. That's good to know. And do you have any idea how much utilization they have of those items
[22:31] - and how much they end up then forwarding off to recycling? I can find out. I honestly don't know on
[22:37] - this shipment. This is what the numbers that they reported back to me, but I can ask them how much they
[22:44] - actually got to use out of that.
[22:47] - Just in general, it would be good to know. I get a lot of questions around fabric and clothing recycling.
[22:55] - If it's just not good enough to go to someone else, what do I do with it? Would this be a good option
[23:03] - for folks? It may be. We do separate different stuff. So we have one big box that we put clothing in.
[23:11] - But inside that box, we separate stuff. So the shoes get separated.
[23:17] - the purses get separated, you know, like suspenders or something like that. I know we was separating
[23:23] - socks and I think we were separating rags. Now the animal shelter, we do ship to the animal shelter
[23:28] - too. They always look for towels, rags and stuff like that for the animals. So we also do that on the
[23:34] - side, but I don't track how much we give them because it's kind of like an as needed basis. So when
[23:40] - they say we need some, we collect it for them and we get it to them. And they walk down the hill.
[23:46] - we take that load to them. So we depend on how much we run a forklift up the hill to them. Okay,
[23:55] - thank you. So along those same lines, I'm wondering how long it took to gather all these donations of
[24:05] - 4,644 pounds. Is that like over six months or a year? It really depends. This is our, I believe, third shipment.
[24:16] - If you count in some from last year, you're probably looking about every four months. It's a lot. Yeah,
[24:23] - but that could go up and down like in the wintertime. We're definitely going to slow down. We slow down
[24:29] - in the wintertime and some of this stuff. People hold it up and bring us a large amount in the spring
[24:36] - so we get it. It's just how often they bring it to us. Alright, thank you. Any other questions or comments?
[24:47] - Thank you, Mr. Long. We can move on to Mr. Paulson's report, Landfill and Environmental Compliance.
[24:57] - Good afternoon. Lee Paulson, Environmental Compliance Landfill Director. The report is what it is. We're
[25:08] - still waiting for items response to our May 26 groundwater sampling event, which is an
[25:17] - Unusual usually we get it anytime from this time to the end of the month before we start on November
[25:23] - sampling event. There wasn't anything that was out of line or anything like that that would have raised
[25:30] - any eyebrows or anything like that. So it's just more of them taking the time to get through a pretty
[25:37] - lengthy report before they report back to us. But I would anticipate that document coming any time.
[25:45] - in the next couple of weeks, so we'll kind of go from there, but pretty much operation is normal here.
[25:51] - We've been shut down at the landfill, so we've been trying to spot clean the weeds that are in the pond
[25:57] - a little bit here or there, Marybeth and I, while the pond is still low. Our plan is to turn the treatment
[26:03] - plan on next week. We have a new computer system that we're putting online that is just different than
[26:09] - what we've had before.
[26:11] - So we're going to try to go slow and play with it, make sure we understand it before the weather gets
[26:19] - pretty ugly and need it, need it. And then Tom had mentioned the tire amnesty numbers. Those are the
[26:27] - last page of my part of the report. We saw less people this time around, but we still took out over
[26:36] - 1,200 tires.
[26:37] - Any tire we're taking off the side of the road or somebody's property that's not ending up that we have
[26:44] - to go pick up somewhere is an extremely positive thing. It was still a nice day, which may have contributed
[26:51] - to not as many people coming just because it had been not good. Then it was a beautiful day out that
[26:57] - Saturday. But we're still pleased with the turnout. I still think it's a very positive thing for the
[27:04] - community.
[27:04] - As long as we can keep getting that grant money, I know the core of us are all happy to do the work
[27:12] - to make it happen. If you guys have any questions, I'm happy to answer. Let me know. Thank you very
[27:19] - much, Mr. Paulson. Yeah, it is great that we can offer that event to preempt some of the cleanup that
[27:26] - you would have to deal with later. Yeah. Yeah. Are there any questions or comments on this report?
[27:43] - I think then we can go on to general public comment. Does any member of the public want to give a general
[27:55] - comment? I don't see anybody. All right. Comments from directors. I just wanted to mention, we talked
[28:08] - about this in the executive committee,
[28:13] - Starting at our next board meeting, we'll have our, and actually probably sooner than that, we'll have
[28:20] - our claims in a new easier to read format. So both the claims that are emailed each week and then the
[28:27] - summary of claims for the next board meeting. So thank you to Mr. Arnold for working on the new format.
[28:35] - I think it'll be. You're welcome. I enjoyed doing it. I think it'll be much easier for us all.
[28:42] - Yeah, we show templates, examples to the executive committee. We do think that it will be simpler to
[28:51] - read and understand. But obviously, if any board members have any questions or problems understanding
[28:59] - it, feel free to reach out to John or myself. And then I wanted to ask, is the CAC scheduled to meet
[29:07] - this month? Yes. We haven't heard from them in a while. Yeah.
[29:13] - They have not said anything to me about canceling next Thursday's meeting. I'm not sure what they have
[29:20] - planned as far as an agenda, but I have asked them to meet because we still have not approved the joint
[29:28] - meeting minutes from July. They need to get that done so they can be presented to the board. All right,
[29:36] - so hopefully we'll have a CAC update next time. Any other notes or questions from directors?
[29:45] - Seeing none, we can adjourn.