Stoddard County Sheltered Workshop receives $41,660 grant from BSWMD

Corey Noles photo - Jim Currie picks up shredded newspaper and places it in the baler at the Stoddard County Sheltered Workshop.

The Stoddard County Sheltered Workshop is now a recipient of a $41,660 grant from the Bootheel Solid Waste Management District for the current fiscal year.

According to Willard Adams, Regional Planner for the Bootheel Regional Planning Commission, the funds will be used to purchase new security bins and to aid in the ongoing operations of the workshop.

Stoddard County Associate Commissioner Frank Sifford along with Adams both expressed their gratitude to the workshop management team and to the employees for their continued positive results in recycling.

The workshop currently employs around 55 local people who take great pride in their jobs as is evident by their work.

The workshop recycles most types of paper, plastic and aluminum/steel cans. There are 18 trailers owned by the workshop placed throughout the county for residents to dump their recyclables in and in general they empty around 20 trailers per week.

Corey Noles photo - Chase Salvens (left) and Randy Throgmmorton (right) pile stacks of newspaper into the industrial shredder the workshop uses to break down its paper products.

Each year the management district takes applications for grants from entities throughout the six-county district. The board then reviews the grant applications and awards the grants based on a set of criteria. The grants are then sent to the Department of Natural Resources for final approval.

Adams explained that the "tipping fees" are paid on a per ton basis at the landfill, and collected by the Department of Natural Resources. All grants go toward recycling programs.

The six counties of Solid Waste Management District "S" are identical to the counties in the Bootheel Regional Planning Commission: Stoddard, Dunklin, Pemiscot, New Madrid, Mississippi and Scott.