Garbage dumps have little to do with recycling

Garbage dumps have little to do with recycling
EDITOR:
I would like to make a couple of observations regarding your Nov. 14 story by Peggy Sinkovich which bore the headline "Recycling employees indicted on criminal damaging charges."
In the first place, to call those running Warren Recycling Inc. "recycling employees" is certainly to upgrade their occupation, in contrast to those involved in serious recycling efforts, such as the members of Mahoning County's "Green Team."
As Warren Mayor Hank Angelo points out in your story, Warren Recycling serves as a transfer station for the city's garbage. City trucks bring the garbage in, and other trucks haul it to landfills. How much serious "recycling" do you thus think is carried out at the Martin Luther King Blvd. facility? Precious little, I'd say.
Since the company also disposes of construction debris on its 70-acre 7th Ward site, my second observation pertains to Angelo's statement that they [Warren Recycling] "have done an excellent job for us."
Does piling up construction debris in huge earth-covered mounds that deface the landscape while threatening to foul the well water of nearby Warren Township residents constitute "an excellent job'? That's sort of like saying the steel mills benefited the Mahoning River.
There is one huge "cell" of construction debris now, and more are planned. 'They will run right up against the yards of township residents. (The company has apparently been accepting a type of wood debris that it shouldn't, and that is why it is now in some hot water.)
Warren Recycling has recently received state approval to fill in a 7-acre spring-fed pond and about 13 acres of wetlands on its southwest Warren disposal site.
The Salt Springs Group of the Sierra Club, which I represent, opposed the filling in of this pond and adjacent wetlands by Warren Recycling at a hearing held last December by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
It was felt that this pond and wetlands had potential as a community recreation area, but the state apparently thought that huge mounds of construction debris (which certainly easily could go to the huge southern Mahoning County landfills) was the preferred alternative.
If the Warren Recycling site could have been "saved" as an area nature reserve, it certainly would have constituted a badly-needed break for the residents of the 7th Ward and Warren Township.
Besides hosting Warren Recycling's noisy and ugly operation, the area is also the site of a huge steel mill, a large state prison, a medical waste incinerator, and an asphalt plant. The area is also plagued by poor drainage (thus has a mosquito problem) and by roadside dumping of old tires.
If leprosy were still a health problem, perhaps the area would be chosen for as leper colony.
ROBERT R. STANGER
Boardman
Chaney history teacher puts veterans in forefront
EDITOR:
Mr. Martin Murphy, a long-time history teacher at Chaney High School, is Chaney's hero. We at Chaney would like to thank him for allowing our students to remember those who served our country in the military.
For many years Mr. Murphy has gone beyond the ordinary to ensure that Chaney students have the opportunity to meet veterans and hear their stories. He has provided us with patriotic music, decorations, and opportunities to celebrate freedom. He has taken students to African American History competitions, and has helped students enter Voices of Democracy competitions.
Mr. Murphy approaches Memorial Day with pride as well, holding ceremonies at our flagpole and taking students to hold ceremonies at cemeteries by laying wreaths on the graves of those who gave their lives. Recently he was nominated as Teacher of the Year for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. This honor recognizes those teachers who promote information about our country's armed services. We congratulate Mr. Murphy, but most of all we thank him.
BARBARA ROSS
Youngstown
X The writer is Chaney's librarian. The letter expresses the sentiment of the Chaney "family."