The SWMD Board will meet in an executive session at 10:30 a.m. -- or following the regular meeting of the county commissioners -- and will interview the consensus top three applicants.

Each board member was supplied Tuesday with resumes from the 13 applicants for the position and will have until Oct. 13 to inform board president Hal Harp of their ranked top three applicants. Harp will inform the three finalists to be present for the closed door interview before the entire board.

The board plans to convene in open public session at 11:30 a.m. on the same day to vote on its selection.

The job will pay $32,000 in the 2009 budget -- the same as the current year's salary for the position.

The vacancy was created when former director Debbie Haseman resigned in late August after 16 years of service with the SWMD.

Since early September, recycling coordinator Erek Wilson, who has been working as the interim district supervisor and handling the day-to-day management responsibilities.

Wilson, of Linton, is one of the 13 applicants for the full-time job. Wilson is a 1991 graduate of Linton-Stockton High School and has been with the recycling center since 1997. He has served as recycling coordinator for the last three years.

At Tuesday morning's SWMD board meeting, Wilson presented the 2009 budget proposal for consideration.

The budget -- as submitted -- is only about $7,000 higher overall than the 2008 budget.

The 2009 budget totals $278,243, compared with $271,763 for the current year's budget.

The budget includes projected Solid Waste Management Fee income of $170,000. Recycling revenues were estimated at $39,000 for corrugated paper, $10,000 for clothes, $9,000 for cans, $9,000 for newsprint, $5,000 for magazines, $21,000 for Buck-A-Bag trash, $2,000 for tires and $1,200 for hazardous household wastes.

The largest budget expense is for personal services -- which includes $182,138 for wages, benefits, longevity pay, training, and travel expenses for 2009. The budgeted amount in those categories in the current budget is $169,103.

A public hearing on the new budget will be conducted at 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 5 with final adoption by the board set for Nov. 18. Once approved by the local board, the budget will then go on to the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance for consideration.

In another matter, Wilson told the board that he would like to purchase a mobile recycling bin that could be transported to different areas in the county for item drop-offs.

Cost of the equipment -- with 12 bins -- would be $11,500.

The board authorized Wilson to go ahead with the purchase as soon as possible.

Wilson said he would also like to re-activate the Solid Waste District's Citizen's Advisory Council in order to get more public input on how services offered can be improved throughout the county.

It was the consensus of the board that this would be a good idea and told Wilson to seek volunteers who would be willing to serve as soon as possible.

He would also like to move forward with getting the Solid Waste District's Web site back up and online again.

The interim director has talked with the county's IT man, Chuck Long, and was advised that he would assist with the Web site design after a domain name is purchased.

The board suggested that in the near future it would like see a person hired who could handle office clerical duties -- including bookkeeping, which is now contracted for about $5,000 annually. The board noted that action would be the decision of the full-time director, when that person is named.