43
Landfill builder calls off project in Girard
Girard
The Board of Health voted Tuesday to accept Total Waste Logistics’ withdrawal of its application for a landfill permit, ending a six-year ordeal between the city and the company.
A letter, dated July 14, states in two sentences the company’s intention to withdraw its application originally filed in June 2005.
“Two sentences and it’s over,” said board member Robert Hanley before the unanimous vote for the withdrawal.
The board opposed the landfill and froze it from moving forward by repeatedly telling Total Waste Logistics that its application was incomplete, board member Charles Ague said.
“Nobody in town was for it,” he said.
Total Waste Logistics first applied to place the landfill on the north side of the city in a 70-acre area between U.S. Route 422 and the Mahoning River. The railroad tracks that run along the river would allow rail dumping from trains coming in from other states.
“Girard is very vulnerable because of all the [railroad] tracks,” said Richard Natoli, committee member of Girard United Against Ruinous Dumping. “They can be a good thing and a bad thing.”
GUARD is a group of city residents that formed to prevent the north side landfill from being approved.
They said the positioning of the proposed landfill is different from the one that already exists on the south side because the south side is less densely populated. He said construction debris creates airborne dust that would fly into residential areas.
“That’s what happened on the south side,” Natoli said. The north side landfill “would be too close to a residential area and the center of the city.”
The group met once a month, and fundraisers throughout the six years helped pay for promotional events and consulting fees.
“And we’re still paying our bills,” GUARD member John Kramer said.
“It feels too good to be true,” Natoli said of the application’s withdrawal.