Proposal to cut funds for landfill inspections draws ire

Proposal to cut funds for landfill inspections draws ire

YOUNGSTOWN

A chorus of township trustees and landfill neighbors protested a proposed 25 percent cut in funding for county health department inspections at and near two active landfills and five closed landfills in Mahoning County.

“To put public safety as a lower priority than recycling is irresponsible,” said Jody Kale, a Berlin Township trustee and secretary of the township association of Mahoning County, during a public hearing this morning at the Covelli Centre.

More than 50 people attended the hearing concerning a 15-year update of the county’s solid waste management plan, which was held before the county’s seven-member solid waste policy board.

The proposed plan cuts the county recycling division’s annual allocation for inspection of active and closed landfills and testing of well water near them from $400,000 to $300,000 beginning in 2015.

County recycling officials have said they are budgeting in response to a decline in landfill dumping revenue as dumping decreases and reuse and recycling increase, and that recycling is a mandated recycling division function, but supporting health department activities is not.

The policy board will meet again at 9 a.m. Oct. 30 in the county board of elections conference room at Oakhill Renaissance Place to further consider the plan.