Recordpub.com - Plans for recycling center are raising ire: Brimfield facility to host garbage transfer station meeting Tuesday

By Mike Sever

Record-Courier staff writer

Plans by the Portage County Solid Waste Management District to build a new recycling facility and convert its existing one to a garbage transfer site are facing opposition.

Residents of Brimfield and nearby Tallmadge, leery of large garbage trucks on their narrow roads, have been calling township officials to object to the plan.

Solid waste district officials have set a public meeting to explain their plans for 6 p.m. Tuesday at the recycling center of the Portage County Solid Waste Management District at 3588 Mogadore Road.

“Oh, there’s a lot of problems,” said Dick Messner, economic development director and zoning inspector for Brimfield.

Messner said the location is not ideal for a transfer site.

“That area, although it is zoned for heavy industry, does not have access to sewer and water and is bordered by mid-density residential,” he said.

“There is a very dangerous intersection at Mogadore and Old Forge (roads), and, at the other end there is the intersection of Mogadore and Tallmadge roads that is extremely busy and dangerous,” Messner said. “So, now you have the two main access points with very dangerous intersections.”

The issue may end up in court. Messner said current township zoning prohibits the county from opening a garbage transfer station at the site.

Changes made in regulations early this year limit the materials and handling at the recycling facility and would prohibit the “processing of organic, solid and hazardous materials,” Messner said.

“That takes in everything else other than what is now being done at the recycling center,” he said.

The facility is in a heavy industry zone where it operates as a conditionally permitted use.

“It is limited to exactly what they are doing out there right now,” Messner said.

Chapter five of the township’s zoning regulations prohibits the “processing of organic, solid and hazardous” materials in the district.

William Steiner, director of the solid waste management district, said the county has maintained the state license for the transfer station since buying the facility in 1994.

“We do technically haul trash out of there to the tune of two million pounds a year,” Steiner said.

The trash is culled from materials dropped off at recycling stations around the county and from curbside recycling.

Steiner said the amount of trash dumped at the recycling drop offs has increased as the economy has worsened.

As a transfer station, garbage haulers serving Portage County would bring in truckloads of trash, dump them in the enclosed building where the trash would be compacted into larger truckloads for hauling to landfills. The waste would be hauled out either by semi-truck loads or by rail car on tracks next to the facility

“Everything will be enclosed. We will not store anything outside,” Steiner said about potential problems with odor from the operation.

Neighbors have complained for years about paper and plastic falling off trucks along the road and blowing out of the facility.

“We have constant complaints of strewn paper, cardboard, material blowing off the trucks and out of the recycling station. It’s constant,” Messner said.

Now they are concerned with more garbage falling along their road frontage and of the prospect of more large trucks using Mogadore Road, Messner said.

“There are a lot of people there complaining” about the issue, he said.

“Even as conscientious as Bill (Steiner) is over there, he’s having a hard time to keep it clean,” Messner said. “And now you’re saying you’re going to bring in a ton of new garbage trucks?”

Brimfield trustees will meet at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the township hall.

1.	Posted by Helspont November 29, 2009
	Now that's sorta funny considering that it used to be a garbage transfer/recycle center when it was owned by Joe Belden and Mike Roth and used to be known as Immediate Disposal Inc. During the time that they owned it the local residents constantly complained about the garbage truck traffic,the trash that flew off from the trucks,and of course the smell. I used to walk from the old horse farm to Old Forge DAILY to make make sure there was no trash laying on the sides of the road.Something that Portage Co. just can't seem to do,I have driven by there at various times over the years and that place looks like a dump,recycle material on the sides of the road,and all over the place at the facility. They must have changed the zoning at sometime when the county took over,and if it says it's not zoned for trash then I say good. Semi's,trash trucks,and recycle trucks don't need to travel those roads.In addition were do they plan on building a new recycle center and where is the money for that coming from?Sounds like a stinky idea to me.