Mayor: Services will continue

The health board still awaits an Ohio EPA recommendation.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The city won't let garbage pile up at its residences and businesses no matter what happens to the Warren Recycling transfer station's license on Jan. 1, Mayor Michael O'Brien vowed Wednesday.
"The garbage will be picked up on the same cycles at the same time," said Mayor Michael O'Brien, promising "no interruption in services."
Upon the recommendation of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the city health board, of which O'Brien is chairman, voted Wednesday to postpone deciding whether to issue a 2006 operating license for the transfer station.
In a letter to the health board dated Monday, the Ohio EPA wrote that it had recently found discrepancies in Warren Recycling's transfer station license application and statements WRI had made to the Ohio Attorney General's Office on March 30. The letter did not elaborate on the nature of the discrepancies.
In the letter, Daniel Harris, Ohio EPA's chief of solid and infectious waste management, asked that the board delay its decision until his agency and the AG's environmental background investigation unit can resolve this matter.
Robert Pinti, deputy city health commissioner, said Ohio EPA officials told him by phone Wednesday morning the agency recommended denying the license, and then, in another conference call Wednesday afternoon, asked that the health board's decision be delayed until further notice.
The health board's next scheduled meeting will be at 3 p.m. Dec. 28, but Pinti said he'd try to assemble the board to act sooner if the Ohio EPA issues a recommendation before then.
Transfer station
The WRI transfer station is the place where garbage collected in city-owned trucks is loaded onto larger trucks to be taken to Browning-Ferris Industries Poland landfill.
If the WRI facility isn't licensed and can't operate after Jan. 1, Renee Cicero, city environmental services manager, has said the city would probably have to use the closest transfer station -- Total Waste Logistics in Girard -- on an emergency basis. That would result in greatly increased fuel, vehicle maintenance and overtime costs, she said.
City Councilman Alford L. Novak, D-2nd, said the extra costs would quickly switch the environmental services department from operating financially in the black to operating in the red.
O'Brien said city officials will discuss contingency plans with Total Waste Logistics.
Rick Jones, WRI transfer station manager, who attended the health board meeting, declined to comment.
Demolitions planned
In other action, the health board voted to demolish eight vacant houses it had earlier condemned as unfit for human habitation. Pinti said it would cost an average of $3,200 to $3,500 to demolish each house, and that the demolitions would occur as quickly as funds become available.
The houses to be demolished are: 476-478 Porter St. N.E.; 280 Idylwild St. N.E.; 877 Mason St. N.W.; 205 Parkman Road N.W.; 2849 Pawnee St. S.W.; 435 Orchard Place N.E.; 1154 Union St. S.W.; and 317 Spring St. S.W.