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The Intermunicipal Relations Committee, which runs state-mandated recycling in central Blair County, and two of its three member municipalities have received grants totaling $812,000 for recycling equipment.
The IRC got $317,000 for a front-end loader and a skid steer.
Altoona received $278,000 for recycling bins, while Logan Township received $216,000 for a leaf vacuum truck.
The grants -- authorized under the Municipal Waste Planning, Recycling and Waste Reduction Act -- are administered by the Department of Environmental Protection.
Local matches of 10% are required, although those don't need to be cash, according to Brock Bryan, IRC executive director.
They can be educational activities, for example, he said.
The loader and skid steer will replace a loader and a skid steer that are more than 20 years old at the IRC's Duncansville site, Bryan said, adding that parts have become costlier and harder to find.
The new equipment will go to the IRC's much busier Buckhorn compost facility -- while the Buckhorn's front-end loader and skid steer will go to Duncansville, he said.
Skid steers have multiple uses and can be equipped with a bucket, a forklift, a broom or a plow, Bryan said.
The city will use its grant to finish paying for recycling bins it ordered a couple of years ago and received in 2021, according to Bryan.
The city ordered a whole truckload then so it would get a better price, he said.
Logan Township's self-contained vac truck will replace an existing one, Township Manager Tim Brown said.
The township uses a vac truck to suck up leaves that residents place along the edges of their front yards at designated times and also to clean leaves out of drainage ditches along the roads, he said.
Hollidaysburg is the third member of the IRC.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.