COLUMBIANA Deadline looms for county landfill records

Another state agency is probing spending by the health commissioner.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency will give the Columbiana County Health Department about two more weeks to comply with a request for landfill records.
If the county department still hasn't surrendered the documents by then, the state agency will weigh what, if any, action it will next take to obtain them, Linda Fee Oros, an Ohio EPA spokesman said recently.
"We still haven't gotten anything," Fee Oros said of the agency's request, made weeks ago, for records the county department was to keep regarding the three construction and demolition debris landfills in the county.
The state is seeking the landfill records to assist it in its oversight of the facilities, located near Lisbon, Rogers and Negley.
The Ohio EPA removed the county health department's duty to monitor and license the landfills in April after the state accused the health department of failing to administer and enforce state landfill regulations. The Ohio EPA's removal of landfill oversight is being contested by the health department before the state Environmental Review Appeals Commission.
It's unclear whether the health department intends to turn over any of the requested landfill papers.
County health Commissioner Robert Morehead has not returned Vindicator phone calls.
Not answering requests
The Ohio EPA has asked the county health department to provide a date when the state agency can have access to the documents. So far, the health department has failed to comply with that request too, Fee Oros said.
After the state asked for the documents earlier this year, Morehead sent the Ohio EPA a letter, dated April 21, asking that the state detail its request in writing.
The Ohio EPA responded in a May 25 letter to the health department.
Documents the state agency is seeking include landfill license applications, correspondence, records and board minutes related to the facilities.
There have been no new developments announced in another issue confronting the health department.
Morehead's use of a county-issued credit card in 2003 is being probed through a state audit and criminal investigation.
County Prosecutor Robert Herron requested the audit and ordered the criminal probe after reviewing a May 2 Vindicator story describing Morehead's use of the county card to make personal buys, including books, golf accessories and Christmas gifts.
Morehead has insisted he repaid the purchases and has stopped using the credit card for personal buys.
Herron has said Morehead's actions could constitute improper credit-card use.
The prosecutor said Tuesday that he met recently with state auditors to receive an update on their progress.
Herron wouldn't comment on what he was told.
During that meeting, he also gave them what he described as a box full of documents his office subpoenaed in the probe.