Eight counties | 36 cities | one region

ST. JAMES—The Ozark Rivers Solid Waste Management District (ORSWMD) will soon be accepting grant requests, after approving application materials during the group’s June 21 meeting.

The grant round officially opens July 6, with an optional pre-application workshop planned from 10 a.m. to noon on July 26 at Meramec Regional Planning Commission, 4 Industrial Drive in St. James. Grant applications will be due by noon on Aug. 29, 2016.

While the exact figure is not yet known, the board expects to award approximately $160,000 in grants to help reduce the amount of waste going to area landfills. Projects must be located or benefit the Ozark Rivers district, which includes the counties of Crawford, Dent, Gasconade, Maries, Phelps, Pulaski and Washington counties.

In its most recent grant round, ORSWMD awarded $186,685 to fund or partially fund 11 projects throughout its seven-county area. These projects ranged from education programs, to illegal dump cleanups throughout the region, to school and city recycling programs to continued support of the household hazardous waste collection sites in Rolla and St. Robert.

The grant dollars awarded by Ozark Rivers comes through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and represent a portion of the landfill tipping fees collected in the district.

The grant application will be available online, beginning July 6, at www.ozarkrivers.org.

For more information, contact Jill Hollowell at jhollowell@meramecrgion.org or by calling 573-265-2993, ext. 109.

ORSWMD includes Crawford, Dent, Gasconade, Maries, Phelps, Pulaski and Washington counties and their respective cities with populations of 500 or more. The district’s strategy for solid waste reduction, which has been individually adopted by all member governments and approved by MDNR, involves intense education and increased recycling efforts in member counties and cities.

Formed in 1969, MRPC is a voluntary council of governments serving Crawford, Dent, Gasconade, Maries, Osage, Phelps, Pulaski and Washington counties and their respective cities. A professional staff of 21, directed by the MRPC board, offers technical assistance and services, such as grant preparation and administration, housing assistance, transportation planning, environmental planning, ordinance codification, business loans and other services to member communities. MRPC provides staffing for the day-to-day operation of the Ozark Rivers district.

To keep up with the latest MRPC news and events, visit the MRPC website at www.meramecregion.org or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/meramecregion.