REGION Recycling site plan continues

No chemicals will be stored at the site.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Trumbull and Geauga county commissioners will go ahead with a $1.5 million household hazardous waste recycling center, despite objections from school officials next door.
This week, both boards of commissioners gave the green light for the Geauga-Trumbull Solid Waste District to borrow $1 million to build the recycling center and new district offices on Enterprise Drive off Parkman Road. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled Wednesday.
Once complete, the recycling center is expected to be open two days a week for residents to drop off dangerous household chemicals such as solvents, pesticides, oils and paint.
The chemicals will be trucked away each day and nothing will be stored, buried or disposed of on site, said district executive director Robert Villers.
"These are the same things you have in your home," he said.
Close to LaBrae campus
The district's 6.4-acre property is separated by about 10 wooded acres from the LaBrae Schools campus, on the other side of the city line. School and Warren Township officials concerned about the possibility of a spill urged the district to build elsewhere since the plan was introduced in 2002.
"It is a lot of dangerous chemicals," said Superintendent Ronald Joseph. "If it was harmless, they wouldn't have a collection site."
Local officials said they also worried traffic to the facility could cause cars to back up on Parkman road.
"We were very opposed to it," said township Trustee Kay Anderson. "We brought our concerns to them and they listened to us politely and they are going to build it anyway."
The district is run by a board made up of Trumbull and Geauga county commissioners. Calls to the Trumbull commissioners were not returned.
Choice of location
Villers said the industrial-zoned property was chosen because of its central location between Trumbull and Geauga counties.
Plans call for a 4,200-square-foot pole building where household chemicals will be received and sorted. A single-story office building will house five district employees, whose offices are on Youngstown-Warren Road.
A company will be contracted to run the chemical collection program from the new building, Villers said. The cost is expected to be less than the $400,000 the district spends each year to collect waste at four daylong events in temporary locations.
The district receives $1.1 million a year from fees charged to waste haulers.
siff@vindy.com