HUBBARD City sets goal for cleaning up dump

Moving a part of the city dump will cost between $25,000 and $30,000.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
HUBBARD -- City Auditor Michael Villano is shooting for the end of the year to clean up the city dump.
The Army Corps of Engineers has ordered the city to remove about 19,000 tons of debris from the wetlands behind Maple Grove Cemetery.
Some debris has already been moved, and the work was approved by the Trumbull County Health Department and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
However, the corps wants more material moved. If not, the issue will be turned over to the U.S. EPA, opening the city to the possibility of moving still more debris and facing a $100,000 fine.
Villano said he hopes the work, which he estimates at between $25,000 and $30,000, will begin next week.
He wants the work completed by the end of the year to avoid the winter weather.
The city ran a newspaper ad to find a site where it could take the material. Villano said he received four or five responses, most within a mile or two from the dump.
Heavy equipment
Villano said the city will rent a bulldozer and two excavators for $11,000 a month to dig out the material. He estimates it will cost $13,000-plus to rent the machinery.
The equipment will be operated by the city's street and water department workers.
Because the city's trucks are too small to haul the debris, the auditor may rent one or two large dump trucks and drivers at $50 to $60 an hour each.
Villano said test borings show the dump contains clean fill rather than garbage. The latter would have to be dumped in a landfill for additional fees.
The auditor said he tried to get the heavy equipment from the government, but the corps and the local Air Force base don't have equipment the city needs.
The Trumbull County Engineer's Office, Villano explained, is reluctant to lend the city equipment because it would appear Hubbard is getting something that other communities aren't.
He said the county, however, is willing to allow the city to use trucks Saturdays or Sundays, but the city must pay the drivers for their overtime.
The county will also allow the city to use the trucks after regular hours on week days, but it's dark by 5 p.m., Villano said.
yovich@vindy.com