Opponents of landfill get reports

The mayor envisions using the land for recreational purposes.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
GIRARD -- Residents against a landfill proposed inside the city limits heard about battles being fought on two fronts that could help them with their cause.
At a meeting in Girard's city building, the citizens group Girard United Against Ruinous Dumping heard from an attorney who is helping the city fight for stricter rules for the landfill. It would be a construction and demolition dump the company Total Waste Logistics wants to put on 40-plus acres in the northern part of the city behind the Golf Dome.
Ohio Central Railroad owns the land, which is between two of its lines.
The group also heard from Girard's mayor, who explained that the city is trying to acquire the land plus some of the old Ohio Leatherworks property next to it. The railroad does not want to sell the land to the city, Mayor Jim Melfi said. But the city filed a lawsuit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in November to take the land by eminent domain.
The eminent domain case, he said, is being handled by Frank Bodor of Warren, a leading attorney on eminent domain acquisitions.
Melfi said the city isn't trying to stop the landfill but wants to acquire the railroad property for recreational space under its land-use plan. He said the property could include soccer fields, ball fields, hiking trails and bike trails. He said the Leatherworks property could be used for recreation and parking.
He said the city has spent 63,824 in the eminent domain process so far.
How case could go
"We know it will be a long, costly battle," he said. "Five or six years ago, we wouldn't have had the money," he said, referring to past financial problems for the city. "That's changing."
"The railroad can be forced to sell the property," he said. "We notified them on a friendly basis that we want it. They refused. So we will see them in common pleas court."
Melfi said the city will try to settle with the railroad before the case goes to court. If it goes to court, a jury will decide what the property is worth, he said.
Melfi said he believes the property is worth about 1,000 an acre. He said he does not know if Total Waste Logistics and the railroad have a deal over the land.
He said, though, that the most efficient place for the company to build the landfill would be on a site that offers direct rail for the debris. "But that will come out in court."
Melfi said it could be another year before the case goes to court.
What lawyer said
Atty. Kurt Latell is helping the city fight an application that would allow the company to operate its landfill under old regulations instead of stricter ones that went into effect in January 2006.
Latell said the state Environmental Protection Agency determined that the company met four conditions for being grandfathered under older regulations: It had to acquire an interest in property; begin hydrogeological studies; begin an engineering plan; and its application would have been deemed complete by the local board of health had there not been a moratorium in place on new landfills. The moratorium was from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2005.
Latell said the state "created an out" for companies that filed applications before the moratorium took effect, and Total Waste Logistics filed its application about a month before.
He said the EPA ruled Dec. 19 that the company was allowed to follow the old regulations. The city had 30 days to appeal that ruling and did so.
He said the city's board of health says the application is incomplete. "We're going to argue they should be under the new laws," he said. "We're saying if this thing goes in, you at least have to apply with the new laws."
He said that would slow the company down, because it would have to redo its application.
Latell said the appeal is in its early stages. A preliminary hearing is set Feb. 27 in Columbus.