Payson Roundup

Courtesy photo

Gila County Supervisor Shirley Dawson, Recycling and Landfill Manager Sharon Winters and Supervisor Mike Pastor admire the discarded bikes that were pulled from the landfill and refurbished by Department of Corrections inmates for distribution to eligible children all over Gila County for Christmas.

Once again Santa’s helpers have been busy refurbishing some 80 bikes to distribute to eligible children in Gila County at Christmas.

The county shop for bike rebuilding was relocated from the Globe Unit Prison to the Gila County Recycling and Landfill site.  The county department of corrections has allowed the landfill department to hire the inmate bike repair team to work in the new shop and contributed all the items that were donated for the program.

With a team of three bike experts, a new location and bikes dropped off at the landfill or donated by the community, better than new bikes have been refurbished and will be the delight of many deserving children this Christmas.

The corrections bike crew team said that as many as eight bikes might be stripped of parts to make one rebuilt one. The bikes are completely broken down, repainted as needed, a new seat, some new handgrips and tires are added to the very best frames.

Contributing to the bike rebuilding and distribution project were the three county supervisors and their staffs, Deputy Warden Ron Lee for assisting in getting the bike crew assigned to the landfill and tools, Deborah Webster with the corrections department, corrections officer Sherry Damiano for donation of a new Radio Flyer bike, to Shelley Vuksanovich, Mike Golden,  Candy Brooks and Sharon Winters for shopping endless stores for bike parts and countless hours of time. Residents also dropped off used bikes and the Payson Police Department donated their unclaimed, lost, stolen or confiscated bikes.

The bikes will be distributed all over Gila County by various organizations such as CASA, DES and fire departments.