Home

Steamboat Springs — Thirty-five Steamboat Springs High School home repair and construction class students recently designed and built four new pedestrian recycling units for Steamboat Springs and Oak Creek.

The three Steamboat units were specifically designed for each location and were installed this week in front of Wal-Mart, Yampa Valley Medical Center and the Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort Association. The Oak Creek unit will be installed next week in front of Select Super.

Barb Parnell, administrator for Yampa Valley Recycles, was particularly excited because the project established a relationship between the businesses and the community.

"The businesses that the units are in front of will pay for the maintenance and servicing of the unit," she said. "It gets the whole community working together."

High School industrial arts teacher Dusty Dike hopes the project will be the first of many.

"Our goal is to get our name out there for other community involvement projects," he said. "It's nice to do stuff that has a reason and a purpose. These units will be there for a long period of time, so the students can point out for years to come that they helped build them."

The vocational program was paid to build the units, and Dike hopes to use the money to buy a high-tech, computer-integrated router - like the one they used at Bruin Banner & Sign to complete the recycling units.

"The kids get the experience and the community involvement element, and the program gets the monetary benefits," Dike said.

The project, which was suggested for the class by Yampa Valley Recycles, was funded by grant money from El Pomar Youth in Community Service and Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp. Some local businesses also contributed to the project.