Environmental group's financial records sought

BY Robert Wang
The Canton Repository

BOLIVAR - Stark County Health Commissioner Bill Franks wants Club 3000's financial records.

He wants to know how much money the environmental activist group has received since 2002. He wants to know the names of all the people who gave the group money. And if anyone made a noncash donation, he'd like to know about that, too.

But Franks, who is set to recommend whether to shut down the Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility, won't say why he wants this information. Nor will he say whether this inquiry has anything to do with his investigation of Countywide, which has had a chronic odor problem, apparently due to chemical reactions involving aluminum waste. Club 3000 has sought to curtail Countywide's operations since it opened in 1991 in Pike Township....Read more.

County commissioners demand answers from Stark health officials

By BARB LIMBACHER
The Times-Reporter

BOLIVAR - Tuscarawas County Commissioner Chris Abbuhl wanted some answers Friday from the Stark County Health Department about violations at Countywide Disposal and Recycling Facility at East Sparta.

However, Health Commissioner William Franks had to leave the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District board of directors meeting for another appointment at 9:50. The board meeting began at 9:30 a.m.

Kirk Norris of the department and attorney Deb Dawson of the Stark County prosecutor’s office, and the health department’s legal counsel, did answer some of the questions....Read more.

Was waste product mishandled? Countywide official disputes claims, video made by Club 3000

By BARB LIMBACHER
The Times-Reporter

BOLIVAR - Video shown Friday demonstrates why a stench has permeated the region around Countywide Disposal and Recycling Facility, an environmental group’s leader contended.

Dick Harvey of Bolivar presented excerpts from a video to the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District during Friday’s board of directors meeting. He is president of Club 3000, a grassroots environmental group that monitors the landfill north of Bolivar in Stark County’s Pike Township....Read more.

Health board won’t put its foot down

The Tribune Chronicle

WARREN - The city of Warren has had years to find an alternative to taking its garbage to a transfer station tied to a controversial, polluted landfill on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Now that the city again finds itself between a rock and hard place, it appears the Warren Health Department will continue to allow the public nuisance.

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office filed contempt charges for the second time against Warren Recycling Inc. and Warren Hills LLC, the remnants of the closed construction and demolition debris landfill. Also, the state Environmental Protection Agency ruled Environmental Transfer Systems Inc., located at the same site, did not pass its background check, which is required annually for solid waste facilities looking to renew an operating license....Read more.

Mayor: Recycling’s woes shouldn’t affect garbage

The Tribune Chronicle

WARREN - Mayor Michael J. O’Brien said Friday residents shouldn’t worry about trash piling up because of problems with Warren Recycling Inc.

‘‘I am confident the problems can be resolved and garbage collection will not be interrupted,’’ O’Brien said.

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office filed contempt charges Thursday for the second time against Warren Recycling Inc. and Warren Hills LLC. Also Thursday, the state Environmental Protection Agency ruled Environmental Transfer Systems Inc. did not pass its background check, which is required annually for solid waste facilities looking to renew an operating license....Read more.

City garbage pickup may be in jeopardy

By Amy McCullough
The Tribune Chronicle

WARREN - The city had a year to find a place to take its garbage in case the transfer station’s operating license was not renewed. That decision came Thursday and no other option is available.

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office filed contempt charges Thursday for the second time against Warren Recycling Inc. and Warren Hills LLC — two entities tied to the now-closed, controversial construction and demolition debris landfill on Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Also Thursday, the state Environmental Protection Agency ruled Environmental Transfer Systems Inc. did not pass its background check, which is required annually for solid waste facilities looking to renew an operating license....Read more.

Attorney General Dann and Ohio EPA Director Korleski Take Action Against Reckless Landfill Operator

Ohio Attorney General News Release

COLUMBUS - Attorney General Marc Dann, on behalf of the Ohio EPA and the State of Ohio, filed Second Charges in Contempt against Warren Recycling Inc. and Warren Hills LLC today in the Trumbull County Common Pleas Court alleging that the company has violated the Court's November 2005 Judgment Entry on Contempt Penalties and the July 2003 Consent Order.

In the filing, the Attorney General charges that Warren Recycling and Warren Hills LLC have failed to properly manage and control leachate, failed to submit an approvable closure plan, failed to submit a post-closure plan, failed to implement groundwater monitoring, and that each Defendant failed to pay $325,000 in stipulated penalties ordered by the Court on November 16, 2005....Read more.

Pike seeks rezoning to shield itself from new landfills

BY Malcolm Hall
The Canton Repository

PIKE TWP - Hoping to ward off any more landfills in this part of the county, officials want to rezone 860.9 acres of Pike Township's southern edge.

The plan calls for the area to be restricted to multifamily residential use. Currently, most of the targeted land, which sits south of Ullet Street SW and west of Ridge Avenue SW, is zoned for general industrial use. A small portion is zoned for two-family residential.

"The main reason is to prevent any other landfill from coming into Pike Township," said Linda Zaleski, who chairs the Zoning Commission....Read more.