Recordpub.com - Neighbors protest recycling center plans: Proposal for garbage transfer station in Brimfield prompts complaints over traffic, trash

By Mike Sever

Record-Courier staff writer

BRIMFIELD — Neighbors of the Portage County recycling center took its owners to task Tuesday night, over current maintenance and the possibility it could expand with a garbage transfer station.

Earlier this fall, the county solid waste management district commission floated the idea to turn the current recycling center on Mogadore Road into a garbage transfer station and build a new, state-of-the -art recycling center on the same property.

Residents said Mogadore Road already is overloaded by truck traffic and, if the district can’t keep the area clean now, they doubted it could manage with many more trucks hauling garbage.

“You’re trying to sell us (on the transfer station idea) and you can’t keep this place clean,” said Lisa Cotten, a member of the township board of zoning appeals. “There is a difference between a clean, industrial use and a garbage transfer station,” Cotten said.

Waste district commissioner Chuck Keiper apologized to the residents, saying efforts have been made to clean the roadway more often.

Dick Messner, township zoning and economic development director, has said while in an industrial zone, a garbage transfer station is not an allowable use of the property.

Keiper said the district has always maintained the transfer station license it acquired when it bought the property years ago.

About 30 residents and others attended the session.

Portage County commissioners Keiper, Maureen Frederick and Chris Smeiles also serve as the solid waste management district commission. Smeiles did not attend.

Keiper noted the district’s funds are separate from the county general fund, so any expansion would have to be paid out of district revenues.

Keiper said the district commission has agreed to advertise for a consultant to help decide if a transfer station and new recycling facility are feasible on the site, or if the operation should be moved.

“Nothing’s cast in stone yet. We are far from that,” Keiper said.

Frederick suggested the district defer the study and instead use the money to put up a fence.

Adding a garbage transfer station and charging a tipping fee could enhance and smooth out the district’s revenues.

Money from selling glass, cardboard, paper and metal fluctuate took a sharp dive last year, putting the district in financial straits.

Keiper said the other reason for doing a study now is because the recycling facility probably has five or six years of life left.

Doing the study now gives the commission time to plan on whether it should invest in a new recycling facility with automation, or a “single-stream” facility that takes intermixed garbage and recyclables and sorts them out at the facility.

Neighbors questioned if the current property has enough space for such a facility. There are no sewer or municipal water services on site now.

Neighbors also complained about the plastic and paper that blows out of the facility onto their property.

Mike Kostensky, a township trustee, said he’s gotten many complaints about the facility’s trash from neighbors.

“I came down here a couple weeks ago. I was embarrassed and I don’t even own it,” he said.