Mahoning Co. joins suit against Wolford

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — The Mahoning County Solid Waste Management District has filed in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to join an earlier lawsuit that accuses Paul Wolford of McDonald of misidentifying the pickup location of waste Wolford’s company delivered to area landfills over six years.

Tim Tusek, an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, said the scheme cheated the solid waste district, also known as the Green Team, out of about $375,000. That’s the same amount the Geauga-Trumbull Solid Waste District said Wolford shorted them.

Both waste districts are asking for about $8.3 million from Wolford in total, adding together the underpayment and state-mandated fees.

Mahoning County’s filing also asks for more than $25,000 each from the Browning-Ferris Industries Carbon Limestone Landfill in Poland Township, Waste Management Inc.’s Mahoning Landfill in New Springfield, and Central Waste landfill in Smith Township for not collecting all the fees Wolford owed.

Both filings say Wolford, owner of Wolford’s Refuse and Recycling Inc., of McDonald, gave false information to the landfills about some of the waste the company collected.

Wolford and his attorney, Robert Shaker, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The company identified waste as coming from Mahoning County, when in fact it had come from Trumbull County, the suits said.

By doing this, Wolford’s paid $5 less per ton at the landfills than it would have by identifying the waste as coming from Trumbull County — $1.50 too little to Mahoning County and none of the $3.50 it owed to Geauga-Trumbull, officials say.

The landfills were required to collect fees on waste originating in Trumbull and Geauga counties of $3.50 per ton to go to the Geauga-Trumbull district and $3 to the Mahoning County district — a total of $6.50.

Because they lied, Wolford’s just paid $1.50 to Mahoning County, officials say.

Jim Petuch, Green Team director, said one way the fraud was identified was that Wolford’s reporting to the landfills suggested that Mahoning County residents were using 6 pounds of solid waste per day, which is well above the 4.5 pound amount estimated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Wolford Refuse log books also contradicted what the company reported to the landfills, officials have said.

Bob Villers, director of the Geauga-Trumbull district, said the lure of doing what Wolford is accused of doing has caused the Geauga-Trumbull district to enter into agreements with all the landfills they work with to allow the district to inspect landfill log books.

If the district suspects a waste hauler may be cheating, the district quickly can check into the matter, Villers said.

The district didn’t have that power until the agreements were signed in November, Villers added.

Both suits also name Waste Management Inc. of Ohio of Cleveland as a defendant because Waste Management bought out Wolford’s in June, according to the earlier suit, filed in October.

Judge John M. Stuard of Trumbull County Common Plea Court issued a temporary restraining order in the Geauga-Trumbull case in October. That prevented the sale of Wolford’s Refuse to be completed.

Tusek said the landfills were named in the suit for “technical and procedural” reasons because they were responsible for collecting the fees, but it is possible they did nothing wrong.

runyan@vindy.com