LIBERTY Trailer park must tap in to sewer

A Youngstown contractor has been hired to upgrade the electrical system.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LIBERTY -- The owner of Grimm's Mobile Home Park will be required to connect the park to a nearby sanitary sewer because its septic system is out of date.
George Buccella, administrator of the Trumbull County Health Department, said Thursday that a letter will be sent to park owner Pete Makis requiring the connection.
Buccella said he will send the notice after the Trumbull County Sanitary Engineer's Office notifies the health department and township that a sanitary sewer is within 200 feet of the park.
Property must be connected to a sanitary sewer within 200 feet.
Buccella said Makis can also ask the health department for a variance so he would not have to use system.
The sanitary sewer runs across the road from the park on Church Hill-Hubbard Road, near the township administration building.
Makis could not be reached.
Electric problems: Buccella's comments about the park came two days after Makis was required to hire a contractor to correct deficiencies in the electric system.
On Tuesday, Makis hired Gulu Electric of Youngstown to do the work, said Jim Rodway, township zoning inspector.
Rodway said Mikis will pay Gulu nearly $10,000 for the work that must be done by Jan. 3, a deadline set by trustees and county building inspection and health departments.
The work was ordered after problems were discovered Nov. 7 by the fire department after a resident called because of power surges.
The park resident told fire officials he was shocked while leaning against the aluminum awning on his trailer.
The park has 18 trailers, six of which are unoccupied and considered "junk," Makis has said.
In June, 1999, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency inspected the park's septic sewage treatment system in response to numerous complaints.
What was found: At that time, the EPA said in a letter to Makis that 22 trailers in the park produced about 6,600 gallons of waste daily into the system, which discharges into a ditch along Church Hill-Hubbard Road.
"At the time of the inspection, it was determined that the existing treatment system had outlived useful life and did not conform to present-day design criteria for wastewater treatment system," the EPA asserted.
The agency wrote Makis that the system, in its condition, "is incapable of treating wastewater..."
"In addition, the septic discharge from this property has allegedly contributed to an odorous condition for neighbors downstream of the facility," the EPA wrote.
yovich@vindy.com