43
Campbell officials decry tire dumping
Prison time for dumping
March 28, 2019 from the office of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost:
(HAMILTON, Ohio) — A Hamilton man who dumped hundreds of scrap tires illegally at an abandoned home and its surrounding property will spend the next two years in prison, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced today.
“This house was completely trashed with tires stacked to the ceiling, stuffed in the shed and scattered across the yard,” Yost said. “On top of creating an eyesore and a public health concern, this guy forced taxpayers to pay the costs to clean up his mess.”
During 2016, Mark Hoskins went to nearby automotive businesses and offered to dispose of their scrap tires in exchange for payment. He then drove to an abandoned residence on Lockwood Avenue in Hamilton, where he dumped between 30 and 40 tires at a time. Investigators found almost six tons of scrap tires on the property.
Hoskins, 56, pleaded guilty on March 26 to charges of illegal transportation of scrap tires and illegal open dumping of scrap tires. Judge Noah Powers II of the Butler County Common Pleas Court sentenced him to two years in prison and ordered him to pay restitution of $3,601 for cleanup and investigative costs.
The Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Environmental Enforcement Unit and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Special Investigations Unit conducted the investigation. Attorneys with Yost’s office prosecuted the case.
By GRAIG GRAZIOSI
ggraziosi@vindy.com
CAMPBELL
City officials are fed up with people using the city like a landfill for tires.
Gary Bednarik, the street department superintendent, said that while tire dumping has always been a problem for the city, it has gotten more severe in recent years.
“At the beginning of the year we made a big push and picked up 1,500 tires,” Bednarik said. “Since then, we’ve already picked up another 300 to 400 tires.”
Bednarik believes the dumping is likely done by small auto shops that replace tires.
“These are probably auto shops who pay people to get rid of their old tires to avoid disposal fees. They give someone a couple of bucks to throw the tires in their truck and dump them and maybe you save a few bucks,” Bednarik said.
“It used to be we’d only see them dumped in empty lots, but now we’re even seeing them in residential areas, like yards between houses.”
Not only are tires ending up around houses, but the city is frequently finding them inside abandoned houses as well.
It’s no secret that population has been decreasing in the Mahoning Valley for decades, and Campbell is no exception. The homes left when the families are gone become prime dumping grounds.
“There hasn’t been a house knocked down yet that didn’t have tires in it,” Bednarik said. “All of them have tires somewhere. We just took about 40 to 45 out of a house on 13th Street. It’s abandoned and people were filling up the garage with tires.”
City Administrator Lew Jackson said when the city recovers the tires, it stores them at a small facility on Warhurst Road near city hall, where they are removed either by the Environmental Protection Agency or other entities such as the Mahoning County Green Team.
“We get rid of most of them through an EPA grant we get every year,” Jackson said. “It’s a free grant. The EPA will come out and take up to 5,000 tires.”
Illegal dumping isn’t just a problem in Campbell; Youngstown is waging its own battle against opportunistic polluters.
Last August, Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown launched an anti-dumping campaign that included the demolition of known dumping sites and tougher sentences for individuals caught in the act.
Bednarik believes the efforts of other communities to discourage dumping may have contributed to the recent increase of illegal disposals in the city.
“Some other cities are taking precautions to curb the problem, which may be why we’re seeing more here,” he said. “But our police are aware of the issue and we’ll be increasing our efforts to stop it.“
Part of those efforts is enlisting residents to help spot potential illegal dumpers and notify the Campbell police of their locations.
“If people see trucks filled with old tires driving around the city, get a description of the truck and the direction it’s heading and give the cops a call,” Bednarik said. “That way they can make sure they’re not tossing them around the city.”