Neighbor: Matt Kleese just cares about his own family

VIENNA

A resident of Sodom Hutchings Road says the Kleese family’s unauthorized use of Trumbull County water shows its indifference to the safety of its neighbors.

Julie Barr, who lives just north of the Kleese Development Associates brine injection wells on Sodom Hutchings, said the homes of two Kleese family members are just north of her home.

One of the Kleeses, Matt, field operations manager for Kleese Associates, also known as KDA, told county officials last week he extended county water from the KDA site and Kleese family farm at the corner of Warren-Sharon Road and Sodom Hutchings Road to his sister’s home and his home.

Those two homes are the sixth and seventh houses north of the KDA site. Barr’s home is the fifth one north of the KDA site. KDA was blamed for the spill of more than 2,000 gallons of “waste oil” earlier this month.

Barr said for Matt Kleese to run public water to his home and that of his sister without authorization suggests that he only cares about his own family’s health.

“To me, they just don’t care about the people around here,” she said. “They’re not protecting the people who live here, but they’re protecting themselves and their families.”

Read more of the story in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.