Landfill idling stalls trash plan

WARREN -- News that a Martin Luther King Avenue landfill has idled its operations means the city's roll-off trash business is on hold.
Atty. Steven D. Bell, who represents Warren Recycling Inc., the landfill owner, told city health board members Tuesday that the facility is no longer accepting waste because negotiations with the state Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio attorney general's office have stalled.
That throws a hitch into the city's plan to rent roll-off trash containers to residents. Those containers, three 10-cubic yard and two 15-cubic yard, were purchased late last year when the environmental services department retrofitted its sanitation trucks.
City council passed legislation earlier this month, giving the go-ahead to the practice. Residents were to be billed on their utility bills to use the containers weekly to dispose of items.
The construction and demolition debris items residents place in the trash bins were to be transported to the landfill.
"It's pretty much idled unless we can get another site," said Doug Franklin, safety-service director.
Mayor Michael J. O'Brien concurred. "It's on hold right now," he said. "They're [landfill] not accepting any waste."