Waste district denies funding
BY Robert Wang
The Canton Repository
BOLIVAR - Gayle Jackson is no longer a Stark County commissioner, and that may mean roads damaged by garbage trucks won’t get fixed any time soon.
The board of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District voted Friday to deny spending $147,757 on repairs for roads used by trucks that carry waste to the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility.
The vote was 4-4, falling short of the five votes needed for the motion to pass. Wayne County Commissioner Cheryl Noah and Tuscarawas County commissioners Kerry Metzger, Chris Abbuhl and Jim Seldenright voted against the funding. Stark County commissioners Jane Vignos and Todd Bosley along with Wayne County commissioners Ann Obrecht and Scott Wiggam voted yes.
Jackson, who could have cast the deciding vote, was absent because she resigned from being Stark County commissioner effective Friday to become a manager for the Ohio Lottery Commission. She could not be reached for comment Friday. The central committee of Stark’s Democratic Party has not yet appointed her replacement.
Stark County Engineer Michael Rehfus had sought the money —about $119,400 to fund paving patches this year and about $28,360 to reimburse his office for patching work done over the winter.
Rehfus told the board that garbage trucks bound for Countywide in Pike Township have damaged parts of Dueber Avenue SW, Sherman Church Avenue SW, Fohl Road SW and Gracemont Street SW. The frequent braking and turning by heavy trucks carrying tons of waste is “peeling off” layers of asphalt, he said.
DEBATE
Noah said she was reluctant to spend public money to support a private business, where the damage was being caused by trucks that carried waste and profited a private landfill.
Vignos said, “this is not an unusual request. ... I think we need to do something to maintain these roads.”
Countywide’s general manager, Tim Vandersall, said his facility has paid $2 million in fees to the district over the last year. He said money to fix the roads should come from those funds.
Rehfus said he’ll ask the landfill and Pike Township, which also gets dumping fees, to provide the money. If he doesn’t get it, he may have to use money from the imposed license fee hike. Or he may seek to reduce the weight limits for vehicles on the Pike and Bethlehem Township roads.
“Which would mean more trucks on the road,” said Countywide’s spokesman Will Flower. “If we can keep the $2 million, we’ll gladly pay for the roads.”
STILL SMELLS, BUT LESS
Separately, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency environmental manager Kurt Princic said the Countywide odor situation, which the landfill has spent millions of dollars addressing, is improving.
“The intensity of the odors appears to be going down, as is the frequency,” Princic said. “But I’m not going to say the odor’s gone away.”
The EPA official said his inspectors visited areas around the landfill eight times in May. Twice they smelled no odor, three times on a scale of one to four — four being the worst — it was a 1, and three times it was between 1.5 and 2.
SHARING THE POWER
Stark County Health Commissioner William Franks told the board that the district’s policy committee has recommended the commissioners consider relinquishing some of their power.
Right now, the three county commissioners from each of the district’s three counties have final say over what the district does. Franks said the committee wants the nine commissioners to consider making the district’s governing body a 21-member board.
It might include one commissioner from each county, health commissioners, mayors, township trustees, members of the public and a representative of the waste industry. It could be modeled after the Summit/Akron Solid Waste Management Authority.
Franks said the policy committee believes that this “gives more of a cross representation than just nine county commissioners.”
Vignos favored exploring the idea.
“It would take some of the politics out of it,” she said.
But Abbuhl, the Tuscarawas County commissioner, said, “I don’t like that idea at all. I don’t want to give up any of my own authority. ... we’re responsible to the people who elected us (to) this position, and they expect us to be making the decisions.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is seeking the public’s comments. It wants the public to suggest the criteria the agency should use to decide what to do with a $250,000 “Community Benefit Project Fund.” The Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility has provided the money because of its odor problems. Comments can be submitted by June 30 by e-mail: communityfund@epa.state.oh.us; mail: P.O. Box 1049, Columbus, OH 43216-1049; fax: (614) 644-2737.
For more information go to: www.epa.state.oh.us/pic/countywide.html
The Canton Repository
BOLIVAR - Gayle Jackson is no longer a Stark County commissioner, and that may mean roads damaged by garbage trucks won’t get fixed any time soon.
The board of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District voted Friday to deny spending $147,757 on repairs for roads used by trucks that carry waste to the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility.
The vote was 4-4, falling short of the five votes needed for the motion to pass. Wayne County Commissioner Cheryl Noah and Tuscarawas County commissioners Kerry Metzger, Chris Abbuhl and Jim Seldenright voted against the funding. Stark County commissioners Jane Vignos and Todd Bosley along with Wayne County commissioners Ann Obrecht and Scott Wiggam voted yes.
Jackson, who could have cast the deciding vote, was absent because she resigned from being Stark County commissioner effective Friday to become a manager for the Ohio Lottery Commission. She could not be reached for comment Friday. The central committee of Stark’s Democratic Party has not yet appointed her replacement.
Stark County Engineer Michael Rehfus had sought the money —about $119,400 to fund paving patches this year and about $28,360 to reimburse his office for patching work done over the winter.
Rehfus told the board that garbage trucks bound for Countywide in Pike Township have damaged parts of Dueber Avenue SW, Sherman Church Avenue SW, Fohl Road SW and Gracemont Street SW. The frequent braking and turning by heavy trucks carrying tons of waste is “peeling off” layers of asphalt, he said.
DEBATE
Noah said she was reluctant to spend public money to support a private business, where the damage was being caused by trucks that carried waste and profited a private landfill.
Vignos said, “this is not an unusual request. ... I think we need to do something to maintain these roads.”
Countywide’s general manager, Tim Vandersall, said his facility has paid $2 million in fees to the district over the last year. He said money to fix the roads should come from those funds.
Rehfus said he’ll ask the landfill and Pike Township, which also gets dumping fees, to provide the money. If he doesn’t get it, he may have to use money from the imposed license fee hike. Or he may seek to reduce the weight limits for vehicles on the Pike and Bethlehem Township roads.
“Which would mean more trucks on the road,” said Countywide’s spokesman Will Flower. “If we can keep the $2 million, we’ll gladly pay for the roads.”
STILL SMELLS, BUT LESS
Separately, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency environmental manager Kurt Princic said the Countywide odor situation, which the landfill has spent millions of dollars addressing, is improving.
“The intensity of the odors appears to be going down, as is the frequency,” Princic said. “But I’m not going to say the odor’s gone away.”
The EPA official said his inspectors visited areas around the landfill eight times in May. Twice they smelled no odor, three times on a scale of one to four — four being the worst — it was a 1, and three times it was between 1.5 and 2.
SHARING THE POWER
Stark County Health Commissioner William Franks told the board that the district’s policy committee has recommended the commissioners consider relinquishing some of their power.
Right now, the three county commissioners from each of the district’s three counties have final say over what the district does. Franks said the committee wants the nine commissioners to consider making the district’s governing body a 21-member board.
It might include one commissioner from each county, health commissioners, mayors, township trustees, members of the public and a representative of the waste industry. It could be modeled after the Summit/Akron Solid Waste Management Authority.
Franks said the policy committee believes that this “gives more of a cross representation than just nine county commissioners.”
Vignos favored exploring the idea.
“It would take some of the politics out of it,” she said.
But Abbuhl, the Tuscarawas County commissioner, said, “I don’t like that idea at all. I don’t want to give up any of my own authority. ... we’re responsible to the people who elected us (to) this position, and they expect us to be making the decisions.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is seeking the public’s comments. It wants the public to suggest the criteria the agency should use to decide what to do with a $250,000 “Community Benefit Project Fund.” The Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility has provided the money because of its odor problems. Comments can be submitted by June 30 by e-mail: communityfund@epa.state.oh.us; mail: P.O. Box 1049, Columbus, OH 43216-1049; fax: (614) 644-2737.
For more information go to: www.epa.state.oh.us/pic/countywide.html
