Environmental police lose funding in Trumbull/Geauga counties over their performance

WARREN

Police working the environmental beat in Trumbull and Geauga counties have had their funding cut off as a result of dissatisfaction with their performance.

But Maj. Harold Firster of the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office says the decision doesn’t mean his office has quit answering the phone.

“We haven’t left them high and dry,” Firster said Thursday of the Trumbull County Health Department and others who rely on the environmental officer at the sheriff’s office. “The program has ceased, but we haven’t let it drop.”

The Geauga Trumbull Solid Waste District last month shut down its employment of the Trumbull and Geauga counties sheriff’s departments and Warren Police Department for environmental enforcement, eliminating the $39,000 annually paid to the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office, $67,000 to the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office and $75,000 to the Warren Police Department.

Firster explained that the environmental officer for his department, deputy Harold Wix, has trained other deputies so they can handle such calls now. His department also has educated troopers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol so that they can better enforce laws regarding transport of used tires, he said.

Firster’s comments came at a meeting of the solid- waste district’s policy committee.

Read more about the matter in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.