Greetings friend. It’s 4:30am, the start of my day and the only moment of real peace I’ll get.

The coffee is good, warm, and the ideas are slowly loosening their gears. But I feel I must be honest, inspiration is hiding these days. Too much work to do. Too many promises made that I’ve had trouble keeping.

Here’s my number one problem: I promised Mrs. Amberlyn Lyles, head of Oxford Recycling, that I could find a welder who could make recycling bins locally, cheaper than the ones she’s had to purchase from up north. Though I’ve been searching, I’ve yet to receive a worthy bid, yet to find the gracious soul willing to give a little help to the cause. Can you help?

Will you help keep our tax dollars circulating at home?

I know that someone out there has a shop in his back yard, and if given the specifications and materials (along with a monetary incentive), could turn out exactly what we are looking for: a dumpster sized recycling bin.

It’s a worthy cause meant to achieve one goal: To increase the volume of recycled materials in Oxford in order to bridge the gap of required taxpayer support. In other words, make it self-sustaining, then profitable.

The specific goal of these bins is to create convenience for local business owners to recycle their cardboard. Nearly every business, regardless of the chosen retail, receives its inventory in cardboard boxes. Tapping this resource aggressively will not only save tax dollars in the short run, but will earn a profit in the long run to be used for other worthwhile, much needed causes… -Like public transportation, for example.

Mrs. Lyles has been at this a long time. She and others have built Oxford’s recycling program from a small grassroots movement into a vital, countywide program worthy of praise. Their efforts have bloomed, but the garden can grow. The notion that something as needed as public transportation might be funded by commercial garbage is seriously worth considering.

It won’t happen overnight, and there are other areas of this program that need to grow. But it’s an idea, and an achievable goal. It begins with a local welder who needs a project and a paycheck. My email is above, or you can call my Pub and leave a message.

Please pass this article to anyone you know who is qualified. Please help me keep my promise to Mrs. Lyles.

Thanks for reading.