Citations still pending for illegal fill

Property owners have 30 days to get rid of the old school's debris.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- One week after the Trumbull County Health Department announced that citations had been issued to four property owners for receiving illegal demolition debris from the former LaBrae High School, officials were still attempting to deliver the citations.
Meanwhile, LaBrae Board of Education members met Thursday in closed session to discuss the meeting representatives had with the health department Wednesday at which they received guidance on what will need to be done with debris buried at the former school site.
Lorraine Mikota, a Health Department sanitarian, said she intended to deliver citations Thursday to the LaBrae Athletic Club and the S & amp;J Babyak residence on Ravenna-Warren Road over the school debris they received. She said an attempt to deliver them by certified mail was unsuccessful.
The citations give the property owners 30 days to have the debris taken to a licensed landfill and to present receipts proving the work. The Health Department has said it will be up to the property owners to recoup their expenses wherever they can.
Mikota said citations were delivered Monday to Warren Revival Center on West Market Street and the J & amp;A Gray residence on state Route 534 in Braceville for school debris they received. A fifth property owner, M. Mulligan residence on West Market Street, received a citation then also for debris, but it turns out that debris did not come from the school, she said.
Can't be exempted
Mikota said church officials, who received more than six free loads of the material and spread it over a parking lot, said they don't have the money to remove the material. The citation says those who fail to comply with the citation will be turned over to the director of environmental health for a director's hearing.
"We can't exempt them because they have no money," Mikota said, adding that when she inspected the material on the parking lot, it didn't appear to be safe for cars to drive on. "I couldn't understand why they would take it," she said.
Mikota said citizens who are considering taking any sort of material to use for fill around their home or business should call the health department and ask before they accept it.
"It's better to be educated than to be found not in compliance," Mikota said, adding that reputable gravel dealers and the like have to meet Environmental Protection Agency requirements and can be trusted.
Mikota said she believes some of the property owners who took the debris were told that the debris was acceptable for fill purposes when it in fact is full of metal, wood and other materials not considered clean, hard fill.
Told it was good
Rusty Sewell, a LaBrae school board member and treasurer of the LaBrae Athletic Club, said a representative from R.P. Carbone Construction Co., the Cleveland management company that oversaw the school demolition, told the club that the debris would be acceptable for parking lot fill because it had been ground up.
Sewell said club members have decided that when they receive their notice, they will refer it to the club's attorney. Sewell said the club asked whether its members could sort through the debris they had spread out in the club's parking lot and pick out the illegal materials, but they were told they could not. He said about nine loads of the material are still in piles on the site.
Mikota said school and company representatives who met with the Health Department on Wednesday agreed that the school district would write a letter to health officials proposing that the school system pay to have soil borings done at the former school site to determine whether the ground-up material there has to be removed.
Frank Migliozzi, county director of environmental health, will rule on the plan early next week if possible, Mikota said. She said Migliozzi can also grant an extension on the 14-day deadline the school system received for removing the debris. The school's citation was dated May 9.
runyan@vindy.com