1
1 TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING FOR
2 PUBLIC COMMENT ON SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT
3 IN CASE NO. 2004CV02705
4
5
6 REPUBLIC SERVICES OF OHIO, II, LLC, ET AL.
7 VS.
8 PIKE TOWNSHIP BOARD OF TRUSTEES, ET AL.
9
10
11 TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2006
12 5:00 P.M.
13
14
15 HELD AT THE PIKE TOWNSHIP HALL
16 7134 EAST SPARTA AVENUE, SE
17 EAST SPARTA, OHIO
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25 Lisa L. Elliott, RPR
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1 APPEARANCES:
2 On behalf of the Pike Township Board of
Trustees:
3
DEBORAH DAWSON, ATTORNEY AT LAW
4 110 CENTRAL PLAZA SOUTH
CANTON, OHIO 44702
5
6 Pike Township Board of Trustees:
7 LEE G. STRAD, President
ROBERT R. ANSTINE, Vice President
8 DOUGLAS L. BAUM
9
Pike Township Zoning Inspector:
10
SHARON PERRINE
11
12 Pike Township Board of Zoning Appeals:
13 LOUIS GROOMS
AUDREY MALAVITE
14 NANCY SNYDER
JERRY EIBEL
15 ROBERT BURKHART
ROBERT MILLER, Alternate
16
17 - - - - - -
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
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1 MR. STRAD: Okay. I'd like to
2 get started on the special meeting of the Pike
3 Township Board of Trustees. This is March
4 28th, 5 PM. Tonight's meeting is a public
5 comment on a proposed settlement in a court
6 action, and Miss Dawson will explain all of
7 these finer points here.
8 We are going to start here, I'm
9 going to introduce everybody down the table and
10 everything. I'd like to introduce myself as
11 Lee Strad, Pike Township Trustee, President of
12 the board. To my right here is Bob Anstine,
13 Vice President. Next one is Doug Baum,
14 Trustee.
15 On our Appeals Board we have
16 Nancy Snyder, Audrey Malavite, Bob Burkhart,
17 and Louie Grooms and Sharon Perrine, our Zoning
18 Inspector. At this time I'm going to turn it
19 over to our attorney -- I think for the record,
20 Mr. Burkhart, call your board together as a
21 regular meeting.
22 MR. BURKHART: Pike Township
23 Board of Zoning Appeals in session, March 28th,
24 5 PM.
25 MR. STRAD: Okay. Thank you,
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1 Bob. At this time I'd like to turn this over
2 to Debbie Dawson. She is the Assistant
3 Prosecutor of the Stark County Prosecutor's
4 Office.
5 MS. DAWSON: Thank you. Good
6 afternoon, everybody. As Mr. Strad mentioned
7 to you, the purpose of this meeting today is to
8 take public comment on the proposed settlement
9 agreement in Case No. 2004CV02705, Republic
10 Services of Ohio, II, LLC, et al. versus Pike
11 Township Board of Trustees, et al. This
12 meeting is being held pursuant to the
13 procedures in Revised Code Section 505.07.
14 While the position of the Pike
15 Township Board of Trustees and the Pike
16 Township Zoning Inspector is that the proposed
17 settlement agreement does not involve an issue
18 that is subject to referendum pursuant to
19 Revised Code 519.12, the board is taking public
20 comment this afternoon on the proposed
21 settlement agreement, and the following rules
22 apply: Anyone who wishes to make public
23 comment must sign in on the applicable sign-in
24 sheets that are to my left. Remember your
25 number.
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1 Those signing the sheet to
2 comment will be taken in order with Pike
3 Township residents commenting first. Each
4 speaker may comment only once. Each comment is
5 limited to three minutes, no exceptions. No
6 one person can assign his or her three minutes
7 to anyone else. I'd like you to think about
8 not repeating. The board is listening to
9 comments, and we would like to have everyone
10 who has a different comment to make on the
11 settlement agreement -- and those of you who
12 haven't seen it, there are copies back there at
13 the table. Try not to be repetitious in your
14 comments. If they've already heard the
15 comments, try not to repeat them, but we'll
16 allow everyone to speak who wants to.
17 The board will take comments on
18 the proposed agreement for two hours. If there
19 are few people left at the end of two hours who
20 want to speak, the board has told me they will
21 go a little bit over. The board will not
22 answer questions. They are sitting here to
23 listen to your public comments.
24 After the public comment
25 session is over, the board will adjourn into
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1 executive session to discuss this pending
2 litigation with me, their legal counsel, before
3 they take any action on this proposed
4 settlement agreement. And for the Court
5 Reporter's well-being, please, all of you who
6 come up to speak, make sure you speak into the
7 microphone.
8 And when you come up, for her
9 benefit, give your name and address before you
10 start to make your comments. Thank you.
11 MR. STRAD: Okay. Like I said,
12 we are going to start and try to do this as
13 many as we can. The young lady over there at
14 the board will be placing the numbers.
15 Everybody has got a number. We are going to
16 try to line you up, keep the flow going, so
17 that we get as many as we can here. So kind of
18 keep an idea where your number is and what
19 number is on the board. You can get behind the
20 person that is speaking at that time so we can
21 just continue on.
22 So I think we'll do the first
23 three -- as probably everybody knows, the late
24 newcomer here to the board, Jerry Eibel. Wave
25 to everybody, and please give us an excuse
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1 later why you were late.
2 Would the first three people
3 that are Pike Township residents please come up
4 here, and we will get started here. I want to
5 remind you, please speak into the mic, speak
6 slowly, give your name and address. This is
7 being transcribed for the court records. We'll
8 go ahead and start with no. 1 here.
9 ALISON ROBERTS: My name is
10 Alison Roberts, and I live at 8338 Dueber
11 Avenue, SW, East Sparta, Ohio. I have written
12 my comments down. My name is Alison Roberts.
13 I'm a long-time resident of Pike Township. I'm
14 writing you today to discuss my concerns about
15 the quality of life in Pike Township and to
16 state my opposition in the agreement with
17 Republic Services.
18 Before writing this letter, I
19 went in search of the mission and the vision of
20 Pike Township government. I felt this was
21 important so that I could understand what
22 guides our township government. I was unable
23 to locate this information on the website.
24 Therefore, I decided to write what I feel
25 should be important to our Pike Township
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1 government and to the residents of Pike
2 Township.
3 Township government should be
4 about what is best for its citizens. It should
5 be about what is best for our children, our
6 community, and our day-to-day quality of life.
7 The Pike Township Trustees and the Zoning
8 Boards are charged with the responsibility to
9 guide and manage the development of the
10 township in a manner that retains or enhances
11 the quality of life of its residents. Further,
12 to be responsive to the needs of the residents
13 and to deliver quality services to meet those
14 needs in the most cost effective means
15 possible.
16 The purpose of the Board of
17 Trustees and the Zoning Board should be
18 dedicated to maintaining and improving the
19 quality of life for its residents; provide
20 accurate, helpful and timely information about
21 the township to the general public; promote the
22 public health, safety, and morals which are
23 directly and significantly affected by the use
24 of the land; protect the life and the property
25 as well as preserve the township's natural
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1 resources, scenic areas and natural beauty;
2 preserve the valuation of all properties within
3 the township; provide a place that families can
4 use for recreation, exercise, sports and play
5 in a clean and wholesome environment.
6 To achieve these goals, public
7 officials must make these decisions based upon
8 some basic core values. These values are
9 essential to the success of our community:
10 Professionalism - provide competent skilled
11 services; integrity - believe in doing what is
12 right for the people they serve; equality -
13 treat all people with honor, respect and
14 dignity; responsibility - realize they are
15 accountable to the members of the community
16 they serve; compassion - show consideration for
17 the whole person while responding to their
18 needs; and excellence - provide high quality
19 service in a competent, professional manner.
20 I ask you today to consider
21 this mission and vision. I also ask that you
22 make your decision based on the goals and
23 values of this community. The Countywide
24 Landfill and its expansion would be contrary to
25 what I believe are the goals of this community.
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1 It will diminish the quality of life, not only
2 for Pike Township residents, but for those
3 neighboring communities as well.
4 The expansion does not
5 guarantee public safety, nor does it enhance or
6 protect the natural beauty or scenic areas of
7 Pike Township.
8 MS. DAWSON: Time's up, ma'am.
9 ELSIE ZALESKI: Hello. My name
10 is Elsie Zaleski, and I have been a resident of
11 Pike Township for a long time. If I tell you
12 how long you'll know how old I am, so I'm not
13 telling you, but I'm here to speak --
14 MR. STRAD: Excuse me. If you
15 could state your address for the court
16 reporter, please.
17 ELSIE ZALESKI: Elsie Zaleski,
18 8250 Dueber, SW, East Sparta, Ohio 44626.
19 Okay. Now I have my own opinion, but my
20 daughter, Linda, who wanted to be here today
21 could not be excused from her job, so she has
22 written a letter, and I'm going to read that
23 letter.
24 "Dear Trustees and BZA members,
25 I much regret that I cannot attend this special
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1 meeting to be held on March 28, 2006. I am,
2 however, not willing to miss the opportunity to
3 exercise my right to express an opinion
4 regarding the topic for this meeting. I am
5 what I refer to as a lifer here. I have lived
6 in Pike Township since I was a child. My
7 parents still live in this township. My
8 sister, her daughter and grandson live here.
9 My daughter, her husband and their two-year-old
10 daughter live here. My son, his wife and their
11 three children live here. Nothing is more
12 important to me than family and my home.
13 I see Countywide Landfill as an
14 imminent threat to our health, our safety and
15 our peace. I have witnessed its creeping
16 invasion into our lives and now watch as the
17 looming mountain of trash gradually takes over
18 the landscape. We have endured the dirt, the
19 danger of truck traffic, and now a noxious odor
20 that fills our valley and prevents us from
21 enjoying the outdoors and our homes.
22 Republic Services is now
23 offering to fund a ramp to divert traffic from
24 our local roads and give them a direct access
25 route to the landfill. The cost of such a ramp
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1 is estimated to be between 15 and 18 million
2 with construction to be delayed until 2011.
3 That's a long time from now. It's not
4 difficult to do the math. Republic would never
5 consent to such an agreement without the
6 promise of a lucrative return, many times their
7 investment of the ramp. The only thing the
8 ramp would accomplish is to take the trucks off
9 of the local roads and remove the delivery of
10 the trash from our sight. Out of sight, not
11 out of mind. Not so.
12 It comes down to money.
13 Whatever the life of the landfill when it has
14 taken its last load, Republic Services, after
15 reaping years of enormous profit from the
16 operation, will walk away from the mountains of
17 trash the highest point in our township and
18 likely the highest point in Stark County,
19 leaving behind hundreds of millions of tons of
20 refuse contained within a little more than
21 enormous trash bags.
22 MS. DAWSON: Ma'am, time's up.
23 Ma'am --
24 MS. ZALESKI: I have two more
25 paragraphs.
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1 MS. DAWSON: We can't make
2 exceptions, ma'am, I'm sorry. Thank you.
3 (Audience speaking.)
4 MR. STRAD: I'll make it very
5 clear here right now. Sir, if there's any more
6 outbursts, these two gentlemen will escort you
7 out. We will not -- we have a three-minute
8 rule. We'll not put up with -- I'd like to
9 explain that these rules are here for the
10 benefit of all. We want to hear, but we have
11 so many people that want to speak to us
12 tonight, we must keep order, and I'll make sure
13 that order is kept tonight for the benefit of
14 everyone.
15 So we all have to abide by the
16 rules. If there's any outbursts like there
17 was, I have two people here that will show you
18 out, so it's as simple as that. Please.
19 Go ahead, Dave.
20 DAVID ROSS: Yes, my name is
21 David Ross. I live at 5725 Joleda Drive which
22 is at Fohl Village, and I'm just here to
23 support putting in the ramp; and we do need it
24 because I do use Fohl Road, and going to work
25 every morning I do pass a lot of trucks. And
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1 going down that hill, it's just not safe, I
2 feel. Dueber and Fohl, it's just not safe for
3 the semis, be easier for them just to use a
4 ramp and because of the children and the safety
5 of the roads. And that's pretty much all I
6 have to say. Thank you.
7 MS. SNYDER: Mr. Chairman?
8 MR. STRAD: Yes.
9 MS. SNYDER: Would it be
10 possible for people like Elsie who has this
11 letter that didn't get the last two paragraphs,
12 if she would like to put it on the table and
13 you guys could review it later to finish it?
14 MR. STRAD: We would even
15 accept the whole letter.
16 MS. SNYDER: Yeah, that's what
17 I mean.
18 MR. STRAD: We will accept the
19 whole letter and put it in with the other
20 documents being submitted to court.
21 MS. SNYDER: Thank you.
22 MR. STRAD: Go ahead.
23 TIMOTHY VANDERSALL: Thank you.
24 I think you all know me, I'm Tim Vandersall,
25 General Manager of Countywide. I want to thank
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1 you for listening to me tonight. I did want to
2 ask, there is a lot of people here tonight, and
3 I wanted to ask by a show of hands or applause
4 who is in favor of this agreement.
5 (Audience applause.)
6 MR. VANDERSALL: Thank you. We
7 operate -- you've all heard this before.
8 You've all been to the site. We operate an
9 award-winning facility, in my opinion and in
10 many others in this room and beyond, one of the
11 best facilities in this great country of ours.
12 We are the only landfill --
13 ROBERT RUBIN: Is he a
14 resident? You told me I couldn't speak.
15 MR. STRAD: We allowed one
16 person from the landfill because they own
17 property in Pike Township, and that's what
18 we're doing.
19 Continue.
20 MR. VANDERSALL: We have an
21 excellent compliance record which I would put
22 up against any landfill in the country, and the
23 public's welcome. You're welcome to look at it
24 at any time. You're welcome to come on site at
25 any time and we'll show you around and let you
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1 know what's going on.
2 We've gone above and beyond the
3 rules and requirements required of landfills,
4 including without limitation, agreeing to
5 accept no out-of-state waste, a cooperative
6 truck monitoring program with the Stark County
7 Sheriff, a voluntary radiation detector, and
8 agreement to hold capacity for the three
9 counties in the district and a state-of-the-art
10 odor control system. We have an excellent
11 monitoring system for gas, groundwater, surface
12 water which have shown no landfill-related
13 issues for over fifteen years of operation.
14 Regardless of what people's fears may be, we
15 have no issues with any of those three.
16 We provide many positive things
17 for the community. These include our park
18 which most of you have seen which includes
19 baseball fields, picnic, volleyball,
20 basketball, fishing, a recycling center, remote
21 control airplane flying club, multiple
22 charitable donations such as American Cancer
23 Society, local fire departments, local police
24 departments, Bolivar Baseball Association and
25 too many to name. And we are always there to
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1 help. When this township calls for a cleanup
2 or to assist, we've been there for fifteen
3 years.
4 The operation of the landfill
5 will not change in a significant manner. What
6 you see is what you get. We said that a couple
7 years ago, and it's still pretty much the same.
8 What will change is that the traffic on the
9 roads will change. We've stepped up to the
10 plate and we are going to build this ramp. We
11 are going to pay more than 15 million dollars
12 to build this ramp. We think that's an
13 important thing for the safety of the
14 residents, and we are going to get it done.
15 If the opponents, some of who
16 are here tonight, would stop trying to block
17 the progress the ramp would be in place now.
18 Thank you.
19 MS. DAWSON: Thank you.
20 TERRY DAVIS: My name is Terry
21 Davis, and I live at 3828 Haut Street, SW, in
22 East Sparta. I feel this judgment is not just
23 about the ramp. I do not agree with no. 2 of
24 the judgment. I feel the public should have to
25 apply for any Conditional Use Permit, including
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1 mining, and subject to all zoning requirements
2 just like other businesses do.
3 I am definitely not for the
4 fourteen hours a day. I live just over the
5 hill, and the aroma is not pleasant, and it
6 cannot be controlled by Countywide and our
7 trustees as well as this township. My ending
8 statement is let this go through the court
9 system to uphold our zoning.
10 MR. STRAD: Okay. We are down
11 to no. 6 through 9 let's have these people step
12 forward, 6 through 9.
13 JAMES DAVIS: I'm 6. Jim
14 Davis, 3828 Haut. I live over the hill from
15 the landfill, and my opinion is the ramp is a
16 good thing. We need a ramp if Countywide
17 continues to stay there, but what we're giving
18 up to get a ramp is not worth it. When your
19 opinion or your conscience tells you to close
20 it down and this agreement says no, don't, or
21 you don't have any authority to close it down,
22 that's a problem. That helps, tells every
23 other business that we don't have any zoning
24 here; anybody can do what they want.
25 There is more to this
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1 agreement than a ramp, a lot more. Fourteen-
2 hour workdays, that means every night when I
3 get home from work I still get to listen to it,
4 not only being woke up by it. There's a lot
5 more in this agreement than just a ramp. Thank
6 you.
7 RICHARD ZALESKI: I'm Dick
8 Zaleski, 2167 Downing Street, SW, East Sparta,
9 fifty-year resident of Pike Township. I travel
10 Dueber every day, pass all them trucks, so I'm
11 in favor of the ramp. There's many, many
12 trucks that go up and down that road, and they
13 do come over center and cause people to jump
14 off the road and things like that. So that's
15 the main thing. I'm for the ramp. That's all
16 I need to say.
17 FRANK KEMP: My name is Frank
18 Kemp, Sr. I live at 5980 Sherman Church. My
19 comment is I applaud the landfill for going the
20 route to pay the extra money, but I would like
21 to see the ramp built and their expansion
22 contingent on when the ramp is built, the first
23 truck that rolls off the ramp goes to their new
24 extension. We don't -- they don't use the
25 extension for fourteen hours a day until it
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1 comes off the ramp. I don't want trucks
2 rolling past my house at 8 o'clock at night,
3 especially in the wintertime when it's dark.
4 That's about it.
5 MR. STRAD: Okay. Can I have
6 the next, 9 through 11, please come up to the
7 podium and introduce yourself.
8 ROBERT WARNER: I'm Robert
9 Warner. I live at 2309 Cedar Street, East
10 Sparta. I'm for the expansion. I'm a Republic
11 driver. The landfill is a good thing. We got
12 about four hundred guys that need jobs, and the
13 reclaiming they do is the best in the nation.
14 I hunt down around the landfill too, still a
15 lot of deer, rabbits, squirrels.
16 I'm for the ramp. I got kids;
17 they're on the roads, and there's a lot of
18 trucks that run back and forth. Thank you.
19 MR. STRAD: No. 11 -- 10.
20 DON MOORE: I'm Don Moore. I
21 live at 5599 Ridge Avenue. I'm in favor of
22 this. I've got no problem with it. I've been
23 in and out of a lot of landfills around here.
24 This one here is one of the nicer ones that we
25 go in and out of compared to the other ones,
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1 and I'm in favor of the ramp. That's it.
2 Thanks.
3 DAVID COLLINSWORTH: My name is
4 Dave Collinsworth. I live at 8471 Briggle. As
5 my career I sell pieces of land for equipment
6 throughout the US and internationally. I have
7 been to hundreds of landfills throughout the
8 US. Some I would consider excellent, some
9 mediocre and some poor. I would consider
10 Countywide to fall into the excellent category.
11 I also am the father of twin
12 sixteen-year-old daughters who, unfortunately,
13 have an Ohio driver's license. Let's get the
14 truck traffic off the back roads, let them put
15 in the ramp. Thank you.
16 MR. STRAD: That concludes the
17 part here of comments from residents of Pike
18 Township. I'd like to read into the record, I
19 had a phone call last night from a Rita
20 Cleaver. She lives in the township at 925
21 Brinker Street, SW. She was not able to make
22 it here tonight, but she wanted to make sure
23 her voice is heard. She is against the ramp
24 and the expansion.
25 Okay. All right. We will
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1 continue on here for non-residents. Let's
2 start with people with numbers of 101 through
3 103. Please come to the podium.
4 LINDA HARVEY: My name is Linda
5 Harvey, and I live at 12102 Sherman Church
6 Road, Bolivar, Ohio. "Dear Trustees and BZA
7 members, I'm writing this letter in regards to
8 the settlement agreement that you are making
9 with Republic Services of Ohio. One of the
10 things in the agreement is the ramp. In the
11 newspaper it was stated that Republic will fund
12 the whole amount for the ramp. Now my concern:
13 They said that it would not start until 2011 or
14 12 which is another five to six years to just
15 get started.
16 In the agreement you are
17 allowing them to be open six days a week and
18 have longer hours also. That will make it
19 another six years that your township people
20 have to put up with trucks. They have to put
21 up with these trucks until 9 at night, for the
22 gates will not close until the last truck is
23 empty. On a Saturday night, the young people
24 are going to ballgames, dates, to see their
25 friends, so this will only make it more
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1 dangerous for your township youth and adults.
2 Now the big word, "if" they do
3 not get the total go-ahead from the state or
4 any other government officials, then the people
5 will have to put up with truck traffic for six
6 days a week and for longer hours each day. At
7 this time do you have it in writing that states
8 -- and also the people that's selling their
9 property, do you have it in writing that this
10 is going to give them a go-ahead on this ramp
11 or an alternate route? Do you have it in
12 writing? Do you have it that they will pass
13 all these things from the government that they
14 can put this ramp in?
15 If you do then, you know,
16 you'll have the go-ahead, but if you don't then
17 you should because that big word, "if" it does
18 not pass all the proper people and places, you
19 have opened the door for more traffic to your
20 people, for in your agreement you have that you
21 cannot appeal any of the agreement once put in
22 place.
23 I do not live in your township,
24 but the landfill affects me as a near-by
25 neighbor to your township. I get the odor from
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1 the landfill, I get the noise from the trucks,
2 and every day I see a mountain of trash out my
3 windows. So I would pray that you would please
4 take another look at what you are doing to your
5 township and to your people. I, as a next-door
6 neighbor to the landfill, would like to say
7 that I'm opposed to the ramp, the longer days,
8 the longer hours, and the expansion. All that
9 these will do is make more trucks, odor, dust,
10 noise and dangers to the people and be here for
11 another forty to fifty years, plus, and they
12 will keep asking for more and more acres.
13 Please help your people. Thank you.
14 RICHARD HARVEY: My name is
15 Dick Harvey, 12102 Sherman Church Road,
16 Bolivar, Ohio. At the March 20th meeting, the
17 trustee meeting, Lee Strad made a comment
18 there's so many comments about the odor in this
19 area. Lee Strad said if that if he had any
20 power, he would stop the landfill, and he would
21 stop it if he had any power.
22 I brought the Zoning Board book
23 to him, and in the zoning book under Section 6,
24 item B, permitted uses under C, Conditional Use
25 Permit uses, it says any other lawful use or
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1 purpose which is not objectionable to nearby
2 property by reason of odors, dust, smoke,
3 fumes, gas, noise or vibrations or is not
4 hazardous to the health and property of the
5 neighborhood. He asked what can I do, I said
6 you don't give them a conditional use. We have
7 odors and the odor is worse. That's been for a
8 long time. I smelled an odor today, I smelled
9 it yesterday, I have smelled it all the time.
10 The dust is still there. The
11 dust hasn't gone anywhere. The BZA made the
12 decision a couple years ago with this plan that
13 that's why they would not give a conditional
14 use to them, because these things were
15 happening, and they are still happening now and
16 it has not changed, Board. It has not changed.
17 We still have dust in the air, we still have
18 odors, we still have truck traffic, we still
19 have noise, people putting up with the noise.
20 So those things have not changed.
21 What has changed that would
22 make you think you go to an agreement that said
23 go ahead and use this land when nothing has
24 changed. I got a letter and I gave it to the
25 board. My mother wrote a letter to the
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1 director of Ohio EPA. He said in this, I'll
2 note that "Issuance of an Ohio EPA Solid Waste
3 Conditional Use Permit does not override local
4 zoning. However, it is necessary for the Local
5 Zoning Board to establish and enforce its
6 zoning restrictions."
7 We are asking you trustees to
8 enforce your zoning restrictions. You have it
9 right here in the book. You can shut this
10 landfill down this very night because these
11 people do not need the odor, they do not need
12 the dust, they do not need the noise, they do
13 not need a mountain out their window. That is
14 not conforming to the harmonious land here. In
15 fact, in your zoning rules you have a rule that
16 said it's got to be harmonious. This mountain
17 is not harmonious with this area.
18 You have the building tonight.
19 We are asking you as a public here to shut this
20 landfill down tonight. We are asking you to do
21 that.
22 MR. STRAD: 104 through 106.
23 ROD COYLE: Good evening, my
24 name is Rod Coyle. I'm an employee of
25 Republic Waste. I live at 4433 Oxbridge Drive
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1 in Stow, Ohio. I've been employed by Republic
2 Waste as long as they've been here in this
3 area, since the year 2000. Before that I
4 worked with the other company that owned the
5 landfill that started the landfill.
6 In my position I've had the
7 occasion to bring dozens upon dozens of mayors,
8 engineers, people who have large corporations
9 to the landfill to give landfill tours. I
10 think it's important that the board understand
11 that other people come to the landfill. I
12 can't speak to the issues that the residents
13 are talking about, I can only talk to the
14 issues that I hear from the people who come
15 down on the landfill tours.
16 The engineers that look at the
17 specs, the engineers who look at the landfill,
18 the mayors who come down before they sign
19 contracts with us, every one of those people
20 have been very impressed by the landfill.
21 You've talked -- you've heard from what we have
22 as the landfill being the best landfill in the
23 country in the year 2000. That's very, very
24 true. I think Tim mentioned that everyone here
25 has been to the landfill, so you know what
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1 that's all about.
2 We feel very comfortable that
3 the landfill is providing services that are
4 necessary. Every person in this room creates
5 trash, and that trash has to go somewhere. In
6 this area the trash goes to our landfill, not
7 out-of-state waste, but local Northeast Ohio
8 waste, again, a very important issue.
9 Our driver that was here
10 mentioned about the safety that was involved
11 with the landfill. We wear this little
12 bracelet (indicating) as a sign that we all
13 believe in the safety of what we call as our
14 culture the culture of safety. That ramp that
15 we are talking about is very, very important,
16 not only for us because of the trucks that roll
17 in and out of the landfill, but for the
18 residents. We want that to happen. We look
19 forward to that happening, and we really
20 believe that what service we provide down here
21 is a very needed service. Thank you for your
22 time.
23 BILL HUTH: My name is Bill
24 Huth. I live at 1580 State Route 212, NE,
25 that's on the wrong side of the tracks going
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1 towards Beach City and is about three miles
2 from the landfill. I have over the last eight
3 months been receiving some unwanted odors,
4 smells at a distance of three miles. I'm in
5 Tuscarawas County, not Stark County, and it's
6 getting worse all the time.
7 In fact, I felt it was
8 necessary to make my complaint or my situation
9 known to the EPA, and I submitted a Verified
10 Complaint. Today I received a telephone call
11 from the EPA director's office -- my complaint
12 was submitted a year and a half ago -- saying
13 that they still had a concern; that they were
14 looking into the odors, that notwithstanding
15 the fact that an odor abatement system or plan
16 had been installed, the complaints continue to
17 come in and increase.
18 They are having a meeting at
19 the EPA next week to discuss this, what the
20 next steps might be. This may be an
21 award-winning facility in 2004. Let me remind
22 you this is 2006. The trash is growing. It
23 will only get worse, it will not get better.
24 If we can't control the odors now, how in the
25 world will we be able to control the odor ten
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1 years, twelve years, even five years, two years
2 from now?
3 There is no technology,
4 apparently, because I'm told that the landfill
5 has the best available technology and has
6 installed it and it hasn't worked. So I am
7 very much concerned about that, and I would ask
8 that you look at your zoning rules and
9 regulations and apply those, particularly as it
10 relates to odor abatement and smell. Thank
11 you.
12 MR. STRAD: Excuse me for one
13 second. We are going to take a break here in
14 about ten or fifteen minutes to give everybody
15 a chance to take a break and everything, so
16 Brenda, please excuse me. Please continue.
17 BRENDA CHARTON: Okay. My name
18 is Brenda Charton. I live at 9863 Sherman
19 Church Avenue, Bolivar, Ohio. First of all,
20 I'd like to speak for my dad, Fred. He didn't
21 feel as though he could get up and speak
22 tonight. He's having back problems today
23 because of the cold, wet weather, but he would
24 like to voice his opposition to the agreement,
25 the ramp, the whole package.
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1 Okay. Now this is Brenda
2 speaking. I looked over your agreement, and I
3 found a very interesting loophole in it. As I
4 read it, Countywide has agreed to pay for a
5 diamond shaped interchange. It very
6 specifically says diamond shaped. Okay. What
7 if ODOT wants to build another type of
8 interchange? Meanwhile, you've signed this
9 agreement with Countywide, but they would be
10 under no obligation to pay for it because the
11 agreement says diamond shaped; but meanwhile
12 the residents would be putting up with
13 fourteen-hour days six days a week.
14 There is a very big loophole
15 that you have -- that you're not addressing.
16 I'm having trouble speaking tonight because
17 I've got to talk about something that I swore
18 to God I would never speak in public about.
19 You know, I hear all this about ramp and safety
20 and whatnot. Well, long ago and far away, I
21 had a very dear friend who lost her sixteen-
22 month-old child in a wreck with a truck on a
23 highway. This ramp would not make things
24 safer. It would just change the location of an
25 accident. The only thing that's going to
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1 happen if this agreement is signed and the ramp
2 is built is that Republic and Countywide are
3 going to get richer. That's the only thing
4 that's going to happen.
5 It is not going to improve
6 safety, it's not going to improve the
7 conditions around the landfill for the people
8 who live there, it just changes the location of
9 an accident. Thank you.
10 PETE GUTWEIN: Good evening.
11 My name is Pete Gutwein. I'm at 2800 South
12 Erie Street, Massillon. I'm also a resident of
13 Stark County. I'm the General Manager for
14 Republic Waste Services Hauling Company,
15 Akron-Canton. We employ over two hundred seven
16 people, and I can tell you out of those two
17 hundred seven people, they all take their job
18 very seriously from the safety aspect to
19 servicing our customers every day to making
20 sure that everything that they do day in and
21 day out is done by rules and regulations or
22 above rules and regulations.
23 I'll put our drivers in this
24 room up against any driver on the road. They
25 are the safest drivers that are out there.
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1 They constantly strive to make themselves
2 better, and as a company we go above and beyond
3 trying to ensure the public's safety. A ramp
4 is a necessity. We need to make sure that that
5 comes in to get the truck traffic off the road.
6 The landfill expansion that's
7 needed, like Tim said, it's a state-of-the-art
8 facility, continues to be. Our drivers, along
9 with our customers, we control what goes into
10 that landfill. Everyone watches, our drivers
11 watch, our salespeople watch, everyone is aware
12 of what's going into that site, and I urge you
13 to vote for the expansion of the ramp --
14 expansion and the ramp. Thank you.
15 MR. STRAD: Nos. 107 through
16 109, please come on up.
17 PAUL TESKE: My name is Paul
18 Teske. My address is 6135 Caledonia Court,
19 Bridgeville, Pennsylvania 15017. I'm an
20 employee of R & J Trucking. I do the solid
21 waste marketing for them, and it seems to me
22 that why we are all here is simply a matter of
23 public safety. What we are going to do or
24 what's going to be decided here is to approve
25 something that will take trucks off two-lane
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1 highways for ten miles, making that loop down
2 to the landfill and back; and when you build
3 this interstate ramp, that will be diminished
4 to less than a mile. As a matter of public
5 safety, that's a winner all the way. You're
6 doing the right thing.
7 On another issue, just my
8 opinion, in doing my job I'm in and out of a
9 lot of landfills. I've probably been in and
10 out of a hundred landfills in my life, and this
11 is one of the best landfills that I have ever
12 been, you know, in and out of. So it's a great
13 site, it's very well run, it's one of the tops
14 in the nation. Thank you.
15 THOMAS O'DELL: Hi, my name is
16 Tom O'Dell. I am a resident of Bolivar, been
17 there for thirty-five years, and I respect
18 Republic Services, the landfill, and the
19 employees. I didn't know we were supposed to
20 wear badges. I wish I would have brought mine,
21 but I'd like to inform everybody that, you
22 know, back in 1990 there was an agreement, an
23 agreement was for a landfill so high, so wide,
24 so deep. Back in 1990 there was never an issue
25 with the amount of trucks on the highway
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1 because we started with five hundred ton, we
2 went to twenty-four hundred, we went to
3 thirty-five, we went to five thousand, we went
4 to seven thousand, we are now at seven thousand
5 eight hundred ton.
6 We started with solid waste, we
7 now have hazardous waste, contaminated soil,
8 leachate outbreaks. We have leachate
9 recycling, we have asbestos, and we have known
10 objects within the landfill that are not
11 supposed to be there. Again, I believe that
12 the landfill is doing a fairly good job. This
13 is not about traffic, this is not about safety.
14 This is about money. This is about money.
15 And money sometimes buys
16 people, and BZA in August of '04 done the right
17 thing. They voted the right way. Again, I
18 challenge the BZA where is the authority in the
19 zoning when the township trustees can overrule?
20 In August of '04 you were being sued by
21 Republic. Now they are taking care of all your
22 finances. There is a lot of unknown. You
23 know, when you go to a doctor, if you don't
24 give them the past history, it's really hard
25 for them to know what the future is for you to
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1 be able to solve the problem you have. Many of
2 us out here don't know what goes on behind
3 closed doors.
4 To have somebody as a trustee,
5 to have a family member employed at the
6 landfill and to be able to vote on an issue at
7 the landfill is a contradiction of what that
8 individual should be doing. To have a family
9 member living in a home that's owned by the
10 landfill is another problem.
11 To have the landfill -- and
12 again I don't want -- I'm not here to throw
13 stones, but I'm looking at what money does
14 sometimes, okay? And I would hope that the
15 trustees, I would hope that the BZA would look
16 at the whole story, okay. And, again, you have
17 to go back to the foundation of where this
18 started from.
19 And, again, I understand the
20 traffic. I know a lot about the truck traffic
21 up there but, you know, if the drivers can't be
22 more responsible, there's accidents on the
23 road. When -- if you have problems on
24 Gracemont with dirt and mud, if you have smell,
25 moving a ramp -- putting a ramp up is not
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1 solving the problem. It is not solving the
2 problem.
3 And, again, I truly respect
4 each one of you for your positions, but I would
5 hope that money does not buy your vote.
6 MARK CARROCCE: Hello, my name
7 is Mark Carrocce. I'm Vice President of R & J
8 Trucking. My address is 6611 Covington Cove in
9 Canfield, Ohio. The first thing I'd like to do
10 is commend the management team of Republic
11 Industries -- Republic Waste for taking the
12 initiative to look to spend the money to put
13 this interchange in. It basically in my mind
14 goes back to their general philosophy of a
15 well-run landfill.
16 We've been hauling into this
17 landfill for over six, seven years, and I can
18 honestly say that every time there is an issue
19 where safety is involved, operations, issues
20 that are involved that aren't in compliance,
21 their management team is either on the phone,
22 sending e-mails, very involved with keeping the
23 peace and trying to do what's right to run this
24 landfill the proper way.
25 And we've had a lot of
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1 experience in dealing with them in these
2 regards, so I really commend them for going the
3 extra mile to put their money where their mouth
4 is, so to speak, and put this interchange in
5 this appropriation or Consent Judgment.
6 So the other thing, as a
7 trucking company we are very involved in
8 general safety. We've spent lots of money
9 In putting such things as looking to put
10 Vorad systems on our trucks, anti-rollover
11 systems on our trucks, things that help to
12 improve safety. And in our minds, when it
13 comes to government legislation and government
14 spending money on such things and public
15 highways, safety is always one of the biggest
16 issues.
17 And I hope everybody will keep
18 in mind that a lot of trucks going in and out
19 of this landfill and the amount of public
20 safety that will be saved by having this
21 interchange put in there. We appreciate it, we
22 appreciate what Republic is doing in putting
23 that kind of money up, and hopefully everybody
24 will listen because it's very important to us
25 to have that. So we are definitely in support
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1 of having the interchange put in as a trucking
2 company.
3 The other thing is, we go into
4 a lot of landfills in a lot of different
5 states, and this is one of the most well-run
6 landfills that we definitely go in. Roads are
7 maintained, things are done the way they should
8 be, not necessarily by budget, they're done --
9 what needs to be done is done, and I can at
10 least say that for them too. I thank you very
11 much for your time.
12 MR. STRAD: Numbers 110 through
13 112, please come up.
14 MICHAEL STEPIC: I'm no. 110.
15 My name is Mike Stepic, S-T-E-P-I-C. I live at
16 1625 Poppy Drive in Mogadore, Ohio. I'm a
17 Licensed Professional Engineer and registered
18 sanitary in the State of Ohio. I have worked
19 in a variety of waste disposal sites across
20 Ohio and several adjacent states.
21 For many of the presenters
22 tonight, one of the things discussed was a
23 mission of Pike Township and your pending
24 decision. I thought of many of the key points
25 made, and the primary one being so far tonight
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1 was the health and safety of the citizens of
2 the township. Of the many sites I visited as a
3 professional in this industry, Countywide
4 represents one of the premiere facilities in
5 this region of the United States. It is a
6 well-run solid waste facility in an industry
7 that's more than regulated by countless
8 regulatory officials such as yourselves.
9 Countywide is also run by a
10 long list of registered professionals,
11 including registered engineers and
12 ex-regulatory officials from the Ohio EPA. It
13 is an extremely proactive facility as it
14 pertains to compliance with the regulations of
15 being a good neighbor.
16 On countless occasions I, as
17 many others within this room, have witnessed
18 Countywide and Republic Waste taking steps
19 above and beyond the regulatory requirements
20 without argument to step up to the plate and be
21 a custodian of their industry and their
22 neighbors, including its installation of it's
23 odor control system, the expansion of its
24 active gas extraction system, prior to
25 regulatory requirements and a continuous review
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1 of its operations and improvements thereof.
2 In my opinion, the decision to
3 grant the funding of the ramp tonight will meet
4 the primary goal of an elected official which
5 is to improve the quality of life and improve
6 the safety of its citizens. The ramp and the
7 limitations of work hours as agreed upon
8 tonight represents a truly professional and
9 proactive step and shows a responsibility taken
10 by both parties to improve the community as a
11 whole. Thank you very much.
12 GARY FRANKS: My name is Gary
13 Franks, 365 Park Avenue, Bolivar. I'm glad to
14 be here tonight. The last time I didn't get
15 the opportunity to finish what I had to say.
16 The only thing I got to say tonight is -- and I
17 didn't prepare a speech, but I think you people
18 have to understand what you're doing is
19 undermining the laws of this land.
20 We have people setting here in
21 the audience that made laws, that made zoning
22 laws, and you're trying to find loopholes to
23 get around the laws of this land. I think it's
24 a disgrace when we try to get around the laws
25 of this land to supply one company with the
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1 opportunity to make billions of dollars.
2 They promised everything, they
3 promised last year that they would have an odor
4 suppressant at this landfill. Every morning I
5 wake up and go to my job, I smell the landfill.
6 I smell it till noon, and then in the evening I
7 smell it again. It's so bad that my
8 granddaughter gets sick and vomits when she
9 drives up 77.
10 Now I don't know, I just
11 believe that you have the opportunity with the
12 laws that are in place to stop this and shut
13 this place down now.
14 PAUL FENTEN: Evening, my name
15 is Paul Fenten. I'm from 202 West Main in
16 Plainfield, Ohio. I'm here in support of the
17 landfill, the ramp, and the safety of the
18 community. I have worked at Countywide
19 Landfill since 1990, and I have been in the
20 position of equipment operator, I have also
21 worked there as the operation manager, the
22 health and safety manager, which the health and
23 safety manager, I currently fill that position
24 at the landfill.
25 Countywide has at the site
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1 probably the best staff of individuals that
2 you're going to find that are trained in their
3 profession. Every landfill has its issues,
4 everything from environmental issues, landfill
5 structure integrity, the employee safety,
6 vendor safety, public safety; but when these
7 issues come up we deal with them.
8 We have no reservations about
9 spending money to fix things that are wrong.
10 We don't try to hide anything. We're open to
11 the public for inspection anytime they want to
12 come in to see what we're doing. I have a
13 couple issues with the Solid Waste District. I
14 don't think that funds should have to go to the
15 Solid Waste District. I think it should go to
16 the trustees of the townships that have to deal
17 and are responsible to the public for the
18 issues that come up.
19 So I hope you'll keep that in
20 mind and, once again, I'd like to state that I
21 am in favor of these things, and I hope that
22 all of you will vote in favor of it. Thank
23 you.
24 MR. STRAD: At this time I'm
25 going to take a five-minute break here just to
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1 stretch, get reorganized here, and we'll be
2 right back.
3 (A brief recess was had.)
4 JOHN DOBIES: My name is John
5 Dobies, 8463 West Craig in Bainbridge Township.
6 Good evening, my name is John Dobies. I am an
7 Operations Manager at the Massillon office of
8 Republic Waste. I came to Republic with over
9 twenty-one years of waste industry experience
10 working in the Cleveland area with one of the
11 other US top three waste hauling companies.
12 I came to Republic because I
13 wanted to work for a company that not only
14 provides excellent service to their customers,
15 but also portrays this through their actions
16 and professionalism, their employees and their
17 equipment. Republic Waste employees and
18 management, from the local level through to our
19 corporate office, have a deep concern for our
20 customers, our neighbors, the public in which
21 we serve, and our fellow employees. We strive
22 to service our customers efficiently and
23 safely. We search for ways to improve these
24 items and are constantly making improvements in
25 these two areas.
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1 I'm here today to ask for your
2 support for both the allowance of the expansion
3 of the landfill and the building of the ramp
4 off of 77. We have over two hundred people
5 employed locally whose livelihood depends on
6 the Countywide Landfill site. The drivers and
7 landfill personnel are not the only people
8 affected. There are a lot of people behind the
9 scene -- sales representatives, office and
10 maintenance staff, all of us and our families
11 need the approval of the expansion of the
12 landfill site.
13 The ramp off 77 is needed to
14 improve the safety and quality of life of the
15 residents located in communities around the
16 landfill site. By removing the truck traffic
17 off the local roads to and from the landfill,
18 safety will be improved, the improvement for
19 the residents because they will not have to
20 deal with the constant truck traffic, and it
21 will be less wear and tear on the local
22 roadways.
23 The traffic from the waste
24 hauling vehicles on the local roadways to and
25 from the landfill will be virtually eliminated.
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1 The drivers of these vehicles will be
2 positively impacted from the safety benefits of
3 the ramp because they will not be forced to
4 travel local roadways to and from the landfill.
5 I appreciate your time and
6 attention and again request your support for
7 both the expansion and the support of the ramp
8 on 77. Thank you.
9 STEPHEN KRESS: Steve Kress,
10 3512 Crownpoint, Massillon, 44646. I'm an
11 employee of Republic Waste. I work with our
12 what we call major accounts. Some of the
13 accounts that I might work with might be an ARE
14 or Hoover or Weight Watchers, which is H.J.
15 Heinz Corporation; and part of my job is to
16 make sure what they take to the landfill is
17 documented correctly.
18 And when you start to explain
19 this to the people, they go "What do you mean?"
20 You go, well, there's a profile sheet needed to
21 be filled out, and it has several questions on
22 it, how the trash is generated. They have to
23 document, you know, different things like flash
24 point and things and is it, you know, make sure
25 it's not hazardous waste. And they have to
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1 sign off on that.
2 And they go "Oh, man, that's a
3 lot of paperwork." I said, well, besides that
4 you need MSDS sheets for your products. They
5 go, "We got to dig all those out?" So we make
6 them dig those out. Then we send that through,
7 and if the two products don't mix right or
8 something, then we don't think they are -- we
9 have to take and have analytical done, maybe D-
10 clip metals or something, and so it's more
11 testing, and the customer is paying for that,
12 the different testing.
13 And they go "Why all this?"
14 And we go, "We got to make sure that the
15 product going in there is not harmful to
16 anything." And then the more that they think
17 about it, they go "That makes sense." They say
18 you know what, this is a great insurance
19 policy. This is great that we know that you're
20 not putting something in there that you're not
21 aware of and that the landfill is only
22 accepting waste that they should accept.
23 So then the other thing I do is
24 I often take them on a tour of the landfill,
25 and it's kind of funny that some people still
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1 refer to it as a dump; but going into the door
2 that's what they might think. Then we take
3 them through to the scale house, then we go out
4 back, we go up through the solidification pit
5 and we show them that's how that's done.
6 Any liquids coming in, take
7 them around back, see where the drain-off ponds
8 are, and they can see workers back there
9 picking up trash daily, and you take them
10 around to the face and they can see how the
11 face is working. That's where all the trash is
12 dumped for the day and then the covers being
13 put on it. And then on the way out, we take
14 them by the ballfield and everything else and
15 up where they fly the model planes; and they
16 are amazed. They go "Wow, we never realized
17 this went on and how much involvement you have
18 with the community."
19 So Countywide does a great job.
20 They run a great show down there. The ramp is
21 needed because all I've heard for years here is
22 too much traffic on the roads. Well, now they
23 are saying that they are going to foot the bill
24 for the ramp. Well, how much better can you
25 get than us sitting there and saying we're
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1 going to put a ramp in there. So it's 2011,
2 it's going to get taken care of.
3 The other thing I'd say is that
4 I worked for Ford Motor years ago, and I seen
5 the place close down and what it did to the
6 people that worked there, how it affected them,
7 their houses. You know, maybe some of them
8 lost their houses or whatever and --
9 MR. STRAD: Thank you.
10 MS. DAWSON: Time is up, sir.
11 Thank you.
12 WILLIAM DUNLEVY: Bill Dunlevy.
13 I'm from 1258 Independence Circle, New
14 Philadelphia, Ohio. I've worked for Countywide
15 for the last fifteen years here, and I was one
16 of the first ones here in January 1990 to break
17 ground for this landfill; and I'm going to tell
18 you this is a nice, one of the nicest landfills
19 around.
20 I'm an Operations Supervisor.
21 My job is to make sure we stay in compliance.
22 Anything that gets dumped out there that's not
23 supposed to be dumped out there is put back on
24 the truck and returned to the generator. We
25 start at 6 o'clock in the morning, we close up,
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1 we cover the face up with tarps, and we are out
2 of there normally at 6 o'clock in the evening.
3 I have good operators. They
4 all have good eyes for special waste or
5 anything that's not supposed to be at the
6 landfill, and like I said before, that's not to
7 be put in the face.
8 I'm all for the ramps. I think
9 them ramps are very important to everyone in
10 here and for school buses and the traffic and
11 the road repairs, that have to take care of the
12 roads and stuff. I think that will relieve a
13 lot of pressure on a lot of people.
14 And as far as the odor,
15 Countywide is doing everything it can to
16 control the odor. We got a very good system up
17 there, and they're going to continue to work
18 with everyone about this odor here. People, we
19 have trash. There is -- go to your house in
20 your kitchen, stick your head in the waste
21 paper can. It's going to stink. So we're
22 going to do everything we can to control this
23 odor. Thank you.
24 MR. STRAD: Nos. 113 through
25 115, please come up. Did we just do those?
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1 Okay. That's my first mistake of the day,
2 folks. Okay. 116 through 118, please.
3 TODD HAMILTON: My name is Todd
4 Hamilton. I work at Countywide Recycling &
5 Disposal at 3619 Gracemont Street in East
6 Sparta. I live in Dover. I moved my family
7 here from Michigan three years ago, if that
8 tells you anything about my commitment to the
9 area and the quality of life here.
10 I am going to border on
11 lecturing you tonight, but I think it's
12 important to sort out what you might be hearing
13 tonight as feelings and what I hope to present
14 and others are facts. I think that it's
15 important to say on the record that I support
16 the agreement with the township, between the
17 township and Republic, because I think it
18 provides for safety provided by the ramp and
19 other issues that are included in the
20 agreement.
21 I bring to the podium tonight
22 perspective that other vendors in the industry,
23 other professionals also bring. I have worked
24 at over thirty landfills in six states. There
25 was a gentleman here tonight that said two
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1 hundred landfills. I haven't been in that
2 many, but I've been in landfills for months at
3 a time, and this is one of the best that I've
4 ever been in.
5 Countywide is committed to
6 safety, and that commitment is unsurpassed in
7 any of the previous employers that I have had.
8 And I've worked for other landfill companies
9 and I have worked in the consulting industry
10 serving landfills. They are very proactive on
11 safety and compliance and aesthetics from the
12 operational side more so than is required by
13 regulation. We seed, we pick up paper, we are
14 dealing with odors. None of those things are
15 black and white in the regs., and you have to
16 work to keep your neighbors and the inspectors
17 happy.
18 We are sincere about being good
19 neighbors. I know that's hard to believe, but
20 I have seen other companies who say show me in
21 the regs. where I have to pay for that and then
22 I'll do it. Until that point I'm going to
23 operate the way I've been operating, and that
24 does not happen at Countywide Landfill.
25 No. 4 -- or no. 5, this company
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1 works at the highest ethical standards that I
2 have seen in the industry. I don't want to
3 disparage the other operators, but you're
4 dealing with a first rate company here. I have
5 made my home in the area. I think that tells
6 you something about whether or not I'm just
7 parachuting in to make my living here then
8 disappearing.
9 And we have spent money on
10 planting construction, including capping and
11 gas collection, that is not required by the
12 regulations. We have done that specifically to
13 address odors. We have spent over a million
14 dollars on odor and gas control since 2004, and
15 that arguably is not something that the
16 regulations require. We want to be good
17 neighbors.
18 There's been some comments
19 about the landfill growing out of control. It
20 proceeds with neat, orderly approved segments
21 of anywhere from eight to twelve acres, and
22 then we close the work behind us, and that's
23 important for the board to understand. We also
24 fix problems before they occur and -- thank you
25 for your time.
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1 MARK SHIPPS: Good evening, my
2 name is Mark Shipps. I'm the President of the
3 American Environmental Group, Richfield, Ohio.
4 Our address is 3600 Brecksville Road. I'm a
5 resident of Summit County which is within the
6 service area of both the landfill and Republic.
7 I'm here on behalf of all of our employees,
8 subcontractors and suppliers to support
9 Countywide RDF, the proposed Route 77 ramp, and
10 the agreement between Countywide and Pike
11 Township.
12 American Environmental Group is
13 a specialty environmental services contractor.
14 We install and operate landfill gas control and
15 collection systems and we provide
16 geosynthetics, or liner, installation and
17 repair services throughout the United States.
18 Last year we worked on over two hundred fifty
19 landfills nationwide, and our company also
20 provides these services to Countywide. We are
21 presently assisting the landfill with
22 improvements to the landfill gas collection
23 system and control system.
24 Many of our employees live and
25 work in Northeast Ohio. We hire local
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1 subcontractors and purchase supplies and
2 materials from local firms. We eat at local
3 restaurants, and some of our employees stay in
4 local hotels. The economic impact of our work
5 related to the landfill in this area is
6 significant.
7 Since we travel throughout the
8 US and work on many landfills, I believe we are
9 qualified to make several observations about
10 the Countywide Landfill and the fine people who
11 work there every day. Countywide is a
12 state-of-the-art landfill, one of the few in
13 Ohio and in the Midwest constructed from its
14 inception according to the most stringent
15 engineering and environmental controls.
16 In comparison to some other
17 larger landfills where we work on a daily
18 basis, this one is well-run, neatly maintained,
19 and is in tune with the needs and concerns of
20 the township and the entire twenty-six county
21 service area. It is unique in that it does not
22 accept out-of-state or even out of region
23 trash. Most importantly, in my opinion, the
24 landfill staff is competent and professional.
25 They take their job seriously. They take the
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1 odor problem seriously, especially as they work
2 to properly install, maintain and upgrade their
3 environmental controls, a process that is
4 underway today.
5 They have a sincere commitment
6 to being good neighbors, a trait that is
7 sometimes lacking in other landfills where we
8 have worked. Finally, the landfill staff is
9 innovative. A recent example of this is their
10 ongoing work and planning for the reuse and
11 recovery of the landfill gas at the landfill.
12 Not only will they continue to aggressively
13 collect and control landfill gas generated
14 within the waste, but by doing so they will
15 play an even more important role in reducing
16 greenhouse gas emissions while they provide a
17 much needed renewable energy source --
18 MR. STRAD: Thank you.
19 JAMES WALKER: Thank you.
20 119120 my name is Jim walker, and I'm a
21 Registered Professional Engineer in the State
22 of Ohio, and I'm a designer of the landfill
23 expansion for Countywide. I'm here to give my
24 support to the Countywide for the zoning
25 agreement and the ramp.
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1 I have approximately thirty
2 years experience in engineering, of which
3 twenty years as full-time in landfill design
4 construction. I have worked on fifty different
5 projects -- fifty different landfills, that is,
6 and have designed twelve approved landfills.
7 I've been involved with Countywide since 1992
8 and have certified construction there as well
9 as prepared the construction plans for the last
10 six cells.
11 Countywide has been designed in
12 accordance with all the Ohio rules and
13 regulations which are very extensive and
14 require considerable investigation and design
15 effort. These include meeting various siting
16 criteria involving groundwater protection,
17 horizontal isolation from things such as flood
18 plains, wells, residual streams, natural areas,
19 unstable areas, et cetera.
20 Countywide is designed with a
21 very protective three-foot thick composite
22 liner and a highly efficient leachate
23 collection system that exceeds the standards
24 required by the state. This leachate
25 collection system is designed to capture any
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1 percolating liquid down to the top of the
2 liner, collect it, and have it pumped out in
3 order to manage it safely.
4 The landfill itself is designed
5 with the perimeter drainage channel around the
6 entire facility to control storm water. The
7 storm water is collected and then is directed
8 to one of five sedimentation basins. There is
9 a gas control system for the entire facility as
10 well as a groundwater monitoring system, and
11 today there has been no exceedances observed at
12 Countywide.
13 Countywide is also designed
14 with a final cap and has a closure, post
15 closure plan and requires through the years
16 monitoring once the facility is closed. The
17 permit for Countywide requires a -- has an
18 extensive construction quality assurance plan
19 which requires all the construction to be done
20 and monitored under a Certified Professional
21 Engineer.
22 From my experience, Countywide
23 is designed, constructed and operated in a
24 sound manner that will continue to be
25 protective of the environment. Thank you for
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1 your time.
2 MARK RUMBLE: Good evening.
3 Mark Rumble, 3094 Ravenna Avenue. I live over
4 in Nimishillen Township, and I'm one of the
5 residents on the other side of the county
6 that's also menaced by the other landfill on
7 the other side of the county, so I definitely
8 understand how the residents in this township
9 believe or what they're going through with
10 this.
11 I'd like to declare tonight
12 that I'm for sanity. You know, it's no wonder
13 that the mayors in these other cities -- I just
14 wanted to talk about a few things. The board
15 here has got important things, decisions to
16 make, and I wanted to give you a few facts.
17 You know, it's no wonder that
18 the mayors in these other cities come and tour
19 this landfill and think it's great. Of course
20 they can avoid their responsibilities if they
21 can ship it down here. So, you know, that's
22 one of the things I care about.
23 And what's the other thing I
24 care about? I care about all these people and
25 their lives jeopardized by all these trucks on
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1 this road there that really shouldn't be here.
2 What else do I care about? I care about that
3 farm there where those people, maybe they don't
4 want to give up their farm for a ramp.
5 So there's a lot of things I
6 care about. What I wanted to bring to the
7 board's attention, since we are talking about
8 agreements, I was reading a host agreement of a
9 different landfill, and their host agreement to
10 their community, they pay just about three
11 dollars a ton to the community. It's split
12 between two communities. It's two dollars for
13 one ton and a dollar a ton to the other
14 community.
15 The host agreement and the
16 landfill is not quite the intake size of this
17 one. The host agreement generates so much
18 money for the residents because of the nuisance
19 created by this landfill. They do not even pay
20 property taxes, so that's another reason that I
21 feel that the community here and over in the
22 other areas of the county are also being taken
23 advantage of.
24 So I just wanted to bring that,
25 you know. You guys have important decisions
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1 here, and you're here to represent the best
2 interests of the community, and it's a very
3 difficult decision. I've been going down to
4 Solid Waste District for years. I'm concerned
5 about this, and I know the genuine concern of
6 Club 3000, and I can hear their testimony down
7 there when they speak; and I know that we are
8 all concerned about the air, the water, the
9 roads, and everything else.
10 And, of course, they are
11 concerned about the residents and the trucks,
12 and it's my family, my children that are
13 jeopardized every morning. We don't -- we
14 can't even wait by the road over on 44, you
15 can't even wait by the road for the school bus
16 for fear that one of those trucks -- and yes,
17 I'm not questioning those drivers. Yes,
18 they're safe drivers, but accidents happen.
19 And what I'm for is sanity, and
20 this is insanity what we have in this county.
21 So I just wanted to come here and talk a little
22 bit about that tonight. Thank you.
23 MARK FUNKHOUSER: My name is
24 Mark Funkhouser. I live in Victor Township,
25 Clinton County, Michigan. I'm employed by
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1 Golder Associates, and Golder Associates is
2 under contract to Countywide to provide
3 professional engineering services, including
4 construction, quality assurance certification
5 during construction.
6 I have personally been there as
7 a representative of Golder Associates for the
8 last three years. My education experience
9 includes a Master's Degree and a Bachelor's
10 Degree in Civil and Geotechnical Engineering,
11 have twenty years of experience in the
12 geotechnical field, including landfill design,
13 construction and certification.
14 I personally signed, sealed,
15 certified the construction of thirty landfill
16 cells at twenty different facilities in eight
17 different states. I'm licensed in the State of
18 Ohio, amongst others.
19 During the time that I've been
20 here, I've observed the construction activity
21 and the operations at the facility to be in
22 compliance with site permit and the state law.
23 Further, based on my observations, the facility
24 is run in a very organized and safe systematic
25 fashion. The facilities operate officially.
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1 The cells are laid out and organized in
2 sequential fashion, where the filling is done
3 in an organized and safe manner.
4 Based on everything I've seen
5 elsewhere and here, the facility is one of the
6 best facilities that I've seen in all
7 engineering aspects. Obviously, the ramp, from
8 a traffic safety standpoint the ramp would
9 enhance the safety of the immediate vicinity
10 around the site and at a site. Thank you.
11 DAVE LIST: Hi, my name is Dave
12 List. I live at DeWitt Township, Clinton
13 County, Michigan. Good evening. I work for
14 Golder Associates, the same as Mark, the firm
15 that has performed the construction quality
16 assurance on several of the cells at
17 Countywide. I'm a Registered Professional
18 Engineer in the State of Ohio and have worked
19 in the solid waste industry for about twenty
20 years.
21 I strongly support both the
22 landfill and the ramp. Although I live in
23 Lansing, Michigan, I recognize the design,
24 construction and operational care invested in
25 this facility by Republic. To give a little
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1 more background, I live and raise two kids in
2 Lansing about a mile from a landfill that's
3 designed and constructed in very much the same
4 manner and operated with the same care as I see
5 down here.
6 I know that the Lansing
7 technology used both there and here protect my
8 family and the environment -- with regard to
9 the environmental issues with regard to waste
10 disposal, so again I strongly support the
11 landfill and the ramp. Thank you.
12 ROBERT RUBIN: Good evening.
13 My name is Bob Rubin, 1735 Vassar Avenue, NW,
14 Canton, Ohio. I'm here to oppose the consent
15 agreement. I'm an attorney. I have done
16 some work for Club 3000. I have represented
17 Fred Charton. We oppose this very, very
18 strongly.
19 A basic premise in my view of
20 all of our legal system is that public
21 officials cannot, should not and cannot enter
22 into an agreement which permits a party to
23 violate or break or not comply with the legal
24 requirements of the jurisdiction that is your
25 jurisdiction. In this case Countywide Landfill
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1 has had since 1989 a one-hundred-acre
2 Conditional Use Permit which apparently they
3 have filled, and apparently they've reached the
4 point that it's time to close it and save this
5 township the problems that arise from
6 expansion.
7 The only way that they can
8 expand this landfill beyond the hundred acres
9 that they have a Conditional Use Permit for in
10 the context of what we are doing here is if you
11 consent to it. If you don't consent to it it's
12 not going to happen. You have the power to do
13 what's best for the long-term interest of Pike
14 Township. You have the power to stop the
15 trucks coming in. You have the power to reduce
16 the smell. You have the power to stop the
17 dust.
18 You have the power to -- we
19 don't need a ramp. There is no place that I
20 know of that would voluntarily agree to build a
21 ramp or encourage or applaud the building of a
22 ramp that has as its sole dedicated purpose the
23 import of waste materials, not hazardous --
24 this is not hazardous, industrial waste,
25 domestic waste, liquid waste, cleanups of other
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1 areas coming into Pike Township. We are
2 talking this is about four hundred feet of
3 depth of waste going into the ground of Pike
4 Township over an area which is going to be
5 expanded, if you permit this, to two hundred
6 fifty-eight acres.
7 It's time to close it. They
8 got what they came here for. They got what
9 they were permitted to have, which was a
10 landfill which they have completed. They made
11 representations initially as to what the life
12 expectancy was and how much volume, how long it
13 would be here. They are past that. They are
14 now building beyond the hundred acres. You
15 shouldn't permit that.
16 I believe this hearing is
17 somewhat tainted by the fact that previously --
18 MR. STRAD: Thank you, Bob.
19 MR. RUBIN: I respect that. I
20 don't think that that's a fair procedure.
21 LARRY ELLIOTT: My name is
22 Larry Elliott. I'm Operating Assistant
23 Manager for Countywide Landfill. I was the
24 first person hired at Countywide. When I first
25 went to Countywide, it was nothing but an
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1 eyesore. It was open pits, spoiled, ponded
2 water everywhere.
3 We have built the first cell.
4 We reclaimed the whole area, seeded it, built
5 ponds. For sediment we built ponds, stocked
6 them with fish. We built a recreational area.
7 Now it's a beautiful site. One thing that kind
8 of bothers me, we only work ten and a half
9 hours a day instead of fourteen. We do have a
10 little dust. We run a water truck in the
11 spring, summer, fall. Farmers have dust.
12 We do have a little odor, but
13 we are a landfill. You go to a farm, you smell
14 cow manure, horse manure, pig stuff. You go to
15 Nickles Bakery or by Nickles Bakery, you smell
16 rolls. You go past the steel mill over at
17 Timken, you smell the hot metal. It's just
18 like anything else, it's the environment that
19 we're in.
20 But one thing I'd like to say
21 is you've got three major landfills in the
22 surrounding community. We are the only
23 landfill that's a BAT site that looks to me
24 like if somebody wanted to oppose a landfill,
25 it certainly wouldn't be Countywide. It would
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1 be the ones to the north of us or one to the
2 south of us because we are one hundred percent
3 BAT.
4 We have excellent operators, we
5 have excellent equipment. Our office staff is
6 excellent. We do nothing wrong. Everything
7 that we do is documented. There is nothing
8 held back, nothing shoved under the rug.
9 Everything is upright. If we do have a
10 mistake, we call the necessary people.
11 But another thing that kind of
12 bothers me, everyone is kind of against our
13 landfill, but for the last seventeen years I've
14 driven to that landfill, and there is a
15 farmhouse on the corner of Sherman Church and
16 Gracemont that's got countless junk vehicles
17 setting around, old trucks, old cars, trees
18 growing out of buildings, a building ready to
19 collapse. All this stuff setting around, it
20 drips oil, gasoline; when it rains, runs into
21 your water supply.
22 Nobody has complained about
23 that. What is that? Why is that? Like I say,
24 I have been employed by Countywide for the last
25 seventeen years --
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1 MR. STRAD: Thank you.
2 LARRY ELLIOTT: I'm happy to be
3 a part of it.
4 JENNIFER SACHS: My name is
5 Jennifer Sachs. I live at 541 Poplar Street in
6 Bolivar, Ohio. All this is not about safety,
7 this is about right and wrong. I also want to
8 say that not all facts that are stated by
9 Countywide have been true tonight. The Bolivar
10 Baseball Association is not and do not
11 associate or affiliate or use their fields.
12 I want to know by a show of
13 hands how many people here tonight live in Pike
14 Township or Wilkshire Hills, Bolivar area.
15 Just raise your hand if you live in this area.
16 Very nice. Thank you. How many people by show
17 of applause is Countywide employees here
18 tonight? Can you applaud for me if you're a
19 Countywide employee?
20 Okay. My argument is not that
21 these people are bad people. I know some of
22 these people in this audience, and they are
23 good people, okay? I'm not arguing that the
24 Countywide Landfill people are bad. You know,
25 I have kids, and I care about my kids. I care
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1 about my water, and I care about my odor that I
2 have to smell every day. It's not impressive
3 to see the mound of garbage on 77. It used to
4 be so beautiful to drive down there. You guys,
5 it's not pretty anymore. It's not pretty to
6 smell that anymore. It makes me sad when my
7 kids look at me and say "What is that smell?"
8 Okay. You've heard from a lot
9 of impressive people from Countywide today, big
10 wig people, okay. They are here to impress you
11 to get you to change your mind. I'm nobody.
12 I'm somebody that's lived in Bolivar all my
13 life. I'm nobody. I'm here because I care
14 about my kids and my family and my community,
15 that's it.
16 I'm not going to get any money
17 from anybody, and I'm not going to gain
18 anything, but to know I can sleep tonight
19 because I came to say please, please take into
20 consideration what you all are doing, okay?
21 Care about the people, don't care about the
22 money.
23 You guys, it's not if you're
24 good or bad, okay? You all need jobs, and I
25 know that, okay. It's not if you're a good
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1 person or a bad person. It's about water,
2 true, what is right, the law, okay.
3 Make sure each one of you can
4 go home tonight and lay your head on your
5 pillow knowing that you upheld the law and that
6 you did what you knew was right for us that
7 live near this landfill. Okay? Thank you.
8 BOB JACKSON: Good evening.
9 I'm Bob Jackson. I'm President of the
10 Teamsters Local 92, 1127 9th Street, Canton,
11 Ohio. I'm here as a representative of a
12 hundred seventy-five drivers and mechanics at
13 Republic Waste.
14 I have had the opportunity to
15 visit that landfill on several occasions and
16 tour it and check it out because of the safety
17 of my people that I represent, and I found it's
18 state-of-the-art for a landfill. I understand
19 landfills ain't popular things to talk about,
20 but as human beings we create waste, and we
21 have to have a place to dispose that waste.
22 And this landfill is a state-of-the-art. They
23 take it very seriously.
24 Also, I found as a
25 representative of these employees this company
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1 takes safety regulations very seriously. I'm
2 speaking on that because I deal with that
3 representing the employees. When things are
4 violated, they aggressively get to the point.
5 We are constantly setting up committees to find
6 safer ways of doing things and making things
7 work.
8 I'm in support of the exit
9 ramp. That's going to take a lot of heavy
10 truck traffic off the streets of the neighbors
11 and stuff. It creates a lot more safe exit
12 into and out of the landfill and the expansion
13 of the landfill. Thank you very much.
14 LES TIPPING: Hello. My name
15 is Les Tipping, North Ridgeville, Ohio. I'd
16 just like to say a few words here. I'm here in
17 support of the landfill expansion and the ramp.
18 I'd just like to say a few things.
19 I work for the Acme Company
20 from Youngstown, Ohio. We are a small trucking
21 and material supply company. All together our
22 company employs around a hundred people. We
23 offer employment to workers from many, many
24 communities, including the Canton, Bolivar
25 area.
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1 In a brief couple minutes I
2 will try to convey some thoughts about our
3 company about this current situation. Having a
4 sanitary landfill in your community is not
5 always the easiest situation. That being said,
6 Republic/Countywide is one of the most
7 professionally managed and maintained
8 facilities our company deals with.
9 Our sales market is Cleveland,
10 Akron, Canton, Pittsburgh, to name a few of the
11 major cities. We deal with over fifteen
12 sanitary landfills in our market area,
13 Republic/Countywide being one of the largest.
14 Their attention to details such as road speeds,
15 routing to and from the facility, tire washes
16 and safety in general are second to none.
17 Our drivers maintain that
18 Countywide is one of the most efficient and
19 safety-conscious landfills that we deal with.
20 In addition to that, traffic, though it
21 sometimes might be hard to deal with, does
22 directly impact the local economy. Our company
23 also does do business with JD Mining, Gulliver
24 Travel Center, National Sand, Ziegler Tire, to
25 name a few. We interact with all these
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1 companies because we are logistically here
2 because of the landfill.
3 In consequence with the proper
4 zoning and expansion, this will impact our
5 relationships with these companies. For me, as
6 a result of these companies -- as a result of
7 our company's association with Countywide
8 Landfill, we, myself, our drivers, we do impact
9 the local economy.
10 In closing, I'd like to thank
11 this room for the opportunity to speak. As I
12 said in my opening remarks, having a landfill
13 in the community is a hard situation, but if
14 properly managed, which Countywide is
15 absolutely run professionally, the community
16 can grow and economically thrive. Thank you.
17 JAMES SELDENRIGHT: My name is
18 Jim Seldenright. I live at 2179 Kevin Court in
19 New Philadelphia, Ohio. I'm also a Tuscarawas
20 County Commissioner. I'm here representing the
21 majority of the people in the northern part of
22 Tuscarawas County.
23 I'm not questioning the
24 integrity of Countywide's employees or their
25 operation, I'm just here to speak on the issue
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1 of zoning. People in Pike Township and
2 Lawrence Township have endured the odor the
3 noise and the dust and traffic for over
4 seventeen years. I don't think there is any
5 argument to that. Zoning is a very complex
6 issue, and it's a very controversial issue.
7 Only three townships in Tuscarawas County are
8 zoned. I'm not sure about Stark, but zoning
9 isn't an easy thing to get passed, and the
10 people that pass zoning entrust boards such as
11 yourselves to enforce it once it has been
12 passed.
13 The people in Lawrence Township
14 don't have a Board of Zoning Appeals to go to
15 on this issue. They are relying on you to
16 support the people in Pike Township that
17 approve the zoning and uphold the zoning laws
18 and rules that you have in place. The people
19 of Pike Township and Lawrence Township are
20 looking towards you to make this place a safer
21 place to live.
22 If zoning rules are enforced,
23 the safety of the residents will come long
24 before the day the ramp will be finished. The
25 landfill will be at capacity, and the other
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1 items -- the odor, the noise and the dust will
2 go away, just like the traffic will go away
3 with a ramp.
4 You're only solving one of the
5 problems, and that's the traffic. Let's get
6 rid of all the problems. Uphold your zoning
7 and let's put the laws to the test. Thank you.
8 MARYANN FEARON: Maryann Fearon
9 from Bolivar, Ohio. I have been a resident of
10 Bolivar, Ohio for over thirty years. I am
11 concerned because we live in an area that is
12 historic. We have Fort Lawrence, we have Zoar,
13 we have the City of Bolivar. You have Beaver
14 Canal. You have Bolivar trying to come back
15 with the Renaissance.
16 You have the Ohio Erie Canal
17 Coalition that is having a towpath from
18 Cleveland to New Philadelphia, Newcomerstown,so
19 that the people from Cleveland and Summit
20 County who send their trash to us can come down
21 and walk right past it on the towpath. They
22 can then smell that which they have sent to us.
23 Now I understand that it's safe
24 and it's state-of-the-art, and we said we'll
25 give you your eighty acres. Then we said we'll
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1 give you your hundred, but how long are we
2 going to allow you to keep taking advantage of
3 us? If other people have trash, then they
4 should have their own places to send it.
5 Summit County didn't want it. They got
6 together and they said guess what, there is a
7 trash place down there on 77. We'll be glad to
8 send our trash down there.
9 You have zoning laws. We are
10 asking you please uphold those zoning laws.
11 The Ohio Erie Canal Coalition has come forth
12 with a memorandum asking you not to allow the
13 expansion because it affects the beauty of our
14 Tuscarawas County, and you have a lot of
15 history and a lot of people, and soon what you
16 will have is a big mound, a big mountain, and
17 the people can come to look at that because
18 there won't be a whole lot of people around.
19 Thank you.
20 RONALD STALLMAN: Good evening.
21 My name is Ronald Stallman. I live at 1818
22 Haut Street, and all I hear tonight is about
23 the state-of-the-arts of this dump, but I can't
24 understand of all the state-of-the-arts why I
25 have to smell that dump all the time. I could
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1 smell it as far away as Fohl Village and up to
2 Gulliver's, when I go to eat at Wendy's. And
3 this isn't more than once, but a lot of times
4 at my house it's there.
5 And there is this one fellow
6 that says about how it stinks at farms and so
7 forth. Garbage has a smell that you don't want
8 to smell. It's awful, sour, awful smell, and I
9 don't see why the residents of Pike Township
10 has to smell that. It's not right, it's not
11 fair. They are making all the money, and we
12 have to put up with it.
13 It's not fair, again, and I
14 think you people need to really look at this
15 situation before you decide what you're going
16 to do. Thank you.
17 MS. SNYDER: Mr. chairman?
18 MR. STRAD: Yes.
19 MS. SNYDER: That was a pike
20 resident, so they might, since we have added
21 people to the list, maybe make sure that we
22 know which ones are Pike residents and non.
23 MR. STRAD: Thank you.
24 Go ahead, sir.
25 MIKE GLOSS: My name is Mike
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1 Gloss at 1402 Old Drum in Bolivar, and I get
2 the pleasure of looking out my window and
3 seeing the mounds here, and I really empathize
4 with you people today. You have a really hard
5 job because I came here with a pretty open mind
6 saying, well, I wonder what's going to go on
7 here.
8 And I'm convinced the dump, or
9 I'm sorry, whatever they call it, landfill, is
10 probably the best in the nation. I mean I'm
11 sold on it. I think they do a fine job, and I
12 think these people that work here do a good
13 job, and I think they're safe drivers. I don't
14 know, I don't smell as much as my wife does,
15 but you know what, that smells like money to
16 me.
17 These guys all think it's
18 money, don't you? It smells like money to you,
19 and that's good, but we set a time when we
20 wanted to do this, and I always say everything
21 is good. Get all the experts to come up here
22 and say how good everything is. I think 3 Mile
23 Island they did that too and Chernobyl. I'm
24 worried about my water. I don't care about the
25 smell, I'm worried about the water. One little
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1 leak goes into the big (inaudible). Hundreds
2 of thousands of people no longer have water to
3 drink. You know what that does to my property
4 value? I'm thinking about me. Do they have
5 insurance to come in and buy out all of our
6 properties because we can't live there anymore?
7 Fifteen feet, boy, that's pretty good between
8 there and our aquifer.
9 You're involved in this. If
10 your water is gone, everything is gone. Now
11 these people all need jobs, and guess what?
12 Countywide is a pretty good company. I'm
13 convinced of it. They brought their lawyers
14 and everything here to help them out. They'll
15 go somewhere else. These people will get to
16 move and go someplace else. If they're lucky
17 they'll go south where it's warm, but they will
18 have a job.
19 They are not going to put these
20 guys out of work because somebody will take
21 them. Somebody wants the money coming in, but
22 we've gone as far I think as we need to go.
23 It's a no-brainer. Do you need it to expand?
24 Absolutely, you got to get them to do it. Get
25 them to do it right away though. Don't let
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1 them wait because we want it as safe as we can,
2 but I'm really against it because I'm afraid
3 they are going to poison our water. Thank you.
4 LETTICIA WRIGHT: My name is
5 Letticia Wright. I live at 209 West Jefferson
6 Street in Stone Creek, Ohio. I'm an employee
7 of Countywide Landfill. Seven years ago I
8 applied for a job through Flex Team, not
9 knowing where I was going to be working. They
10 told me to go to Countywide Landfill and to be
11 interviewed.
12 I was interviewed, and on my
13 way home all I kept thinking about is man, I do
14 not want to work at a landfill. The more I
15 thought about it, I decided, okay, I would take
16 a job. I was in college. I needed money to
17 work -- or for school and stuff. I gave the
18 lady an answer, and I told her that I would be
19 there approximately one year until I was done
20 with school. As I said, seven years later I'm
21 still there, not because I have to be, because
22 I want to be.
23 For the lady that said that
24 somebody up here was lying because of Bolivar
25 not using our baseball field, Bolivar is not
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1 the only baseball association in this area.
2 We have two people that have contracts with us
3 to play on the fields this year. To the lady
4 that said something about the towpath not
5 wanting to come past Countywide because
6 Countywide stunk, up in Akron K & B Compost
7 facility, they take in residential sludge, our
8 waste, and mix it with mulch and stuff like
9 that and make compost out of it.
10 The towpath, the bike path,
11 everything goes right past that facility. In
12 the summertime that place reeks. Nobody wants
13 to be on that, but you know what, they put it
14 there, and they're going to build it right
15 beside Countywide Landfill, and it's going to
16 be fine. Everybody is going to go by it.
17 Everybody is going to go by it, and there is
18 not going to be a problem.
19 I'm proud to stand up here and
20 say that I work with the special waste at
21 Countywide, and I wouldn't want to work
22 anywhere else. Customers call me. I have
23 customers that go to other landfills, and they
24 call because we are the best landfill in the
25 area. We do everything possible.
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1 The Pike Township, your
2 trustees had told us before we had to change
3 this, we had to change that. We've been
4 working on it. Things don't happen overnight.
5 The ramp, six years ago they were fighting over
6 this ramp when I was beginning work there, and
7 still to this day they're still fighting trying
8 to get this ramp in. They will say it will be
9 2011. If we were to work on it six years ago,
10 it would have been two years before the ramp
11 would be put in, and if it was up to Countywide
12 we would put the ramp in tomorrow if possible.
13 If we could go out there and
14 build the ramp and get the trucks off the road
15 for the safety of the people that live there,
16 we would do it because that's all we are
17 concerned about is the people and the safety.
18 Thank you.
19 MR. STRAD: This one is a Pike
20 Township resident.
21 RON KATT: My name is Ron Katt,
22 and I live on Battlesburg Road here in Pike
23 Township. Sounds to me like Countywide is a
24 great, wonderful company to work for. I hear
25 everybody talk about it. All their drivers are
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1 great people, and they run a high-tech
2 operation over there and so forth.
3 I think everybody is in favor
4 of a ramp to get the trucks off the county
5 roads, but my concern is if Countywide cannot
6 fix their washing system for their trailers,
7 they can't keep the dust off the roads and they
8 can't eliminate the odor, then why should we
9 give them an expansion permit so that they can
10 continue to pollute the air for the next
11 twenty-five thirty years? Thank you.
12 JULI SMITH: Hi, my name is
13 Juli, and I have been at Republic Waste for
14 five years. And my first question is do all of
15 you know where your trash actually goes to? Do
16 you know what landfill it goes to? I mean can
17 you all actually tell me where it goes to?
18 Have you ever experienced going to a landfill?
19 I've never in the five years
20 that I have ever been there said that I never
21 liked going to the landfill. I've been there
22 several times. I have been to other landfills.
23 This is the only one that I would ever fully
24 say it's fun to be there. It's great to be
25 there. There's different things to do there.
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1 Have you ever been there on the
2 ballfield to watch a ballgame? You guys can
3 sit here and laugh. Go there. I understand
4 your pros and cons to it. I live in Stark
5 County. I've worked in Massillon and worked
6 right across the street from the waste water
7 treatment plant. The water treatment plant
8 smells worse than that landfill. I worked
9 there for five years.
10 They have spent millions of
11 dollars on that plant across the street that I
12 have lived there all twenty-eight years of my
13 life. I'm still fine, and I understand your
14 pros and cons to it, but you have to understand
15 where we are coming from too. Thanks.
16 TAMARA SANDS: My name is
17 Tamara Sands. I am the Environmental
18 Specialist at Countywide Landfill. I have been
19 there for over five years. I'd just like you
20 to know that it is my job to keep this facility
21 in compliance with all of its permits, all
22 applicable regulations, and I take great pride
23 in maintaining that status. My faith, my
24 ethics do not allow me to do anything
25 otherwise.
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1 I realize all of you have a
2 personal investment purely out of proximity and
3 out of your longevity in the area. Let me
4 assure you that we are making every effort to
5 maintain the status quo and making it better.
6 We are undertaking several projects to improve
7 and enhance our existing systems and will
8 continue do so.
9 I understand, and I'm sure
10 you're all familiar with the acronym NIMBY.
11 The problem with NIMBY is NIMBY wants to point
12 a finger. NIMBY does not have a solution.
13 When we all hear every single one of us, for
14 and against, state without any doubt that we
15 recycle one hundred percent of our waste, that
16 is when you will not need a landfill again in
17 your lifetime. Our society is a throw-away
18 society. Until each one of us takes
19 responsibility for what we generate, you'll
20 never ever get away from the need for a
21 landfill.
22 I'm very aware of where our
23 waste comes from. I'm very proud to say we do
24 not take any out-of-state waste. We have set
25 capacities. We ensure that the twenty-six --
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1 or thirty-nine counties within our districts
2 has affordable and reasonable disposal capacity
3 so that the residents in the area are never
4 without.
5 There are several other
6 communities within this state that can't say
7 that, and they have to ship their waste out to
8 a great expense for their residents. Let me
9 assure you that is not what we want. We are
10 striving to be the best, maintain the best, and
11 we'll continue to do so. Thank you.
12 FRANK BAIR: My name is Frank
13 Bair. I'm with Bair Goodin & Associates at 153
14 North Broadway, New Philadelphia, and we've
15 been with Countywide since they started mining
16 and constructing in 1990, and we still are.
17 When Countywide took over the
18 site in 1990 and started construction, there's
19 been several mining companies in there prior to
20 their existence, and they left mining bits with
21 acid water, they left high walls, spoil piles.
22 Probably a majority of the property was mined
23 at that time and just left for whatever, the
24 state to come in and reclaim it.
25 When Countywide took over and
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1 started constructing the first cell, they
2 immediately also started the reclamation
3 process, and during construction and
4 reclamation, they reclaimed over four hundred
5 acres that somebody else had disturbed and
6 mined and without -- at their own costs,
7 without costing the taxpayers any money.
8 Countywide was also
9 instrumental in getting reclaimed approximately
10 eighty acres of the Muskingum Watershed land at
11 no cost to the taxpayers which is east of the
12 Countywide property. It was mined by a
13 previous owner and not reclaimed, and
14 Countywide was instrumental in that being
15 reclaimed. Countywide has done a lot of
16 reclamation on the site, backfilled all the
17 other high walls that was previously mined.
18 They have had and have four
19 mining, they have have four mining permits on
20 the site, and they have an excellent mining
21 inspection rating with the State of Ohio which
22 is regulated under the Department of Natural
23 Resources, and they still have one mining
24 permit on the property. They have an excellent
25 rapport with the ODNR at this time.
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1 So that's all I got to say.
2 MATT DAVIES: Good evening. My
3 name is Matt Davies. I'm the Senior Vice
4 President for Environmental Engineering and
5 Compliance for Republic Services. I am from
6 Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I've been in the
7 waste business for twenty-five years, and I
8 understand the emotional issues. I've been
9 involved in probably a hundred fifty landfills
10 across the country.
11 This is, you know, our
12 employees here, I'm very proud of them. They
13 provide a service that doesn't get a lot of
14 respect in today's world, but yet everyone here
15 takes their garbage to the curb once or twice a
16 week every week. And we provide that service
17 in not only collecting it, but safely
18 transporting it and safely disposing of it in
19 our facilities at Republic Services.
20 You know, we've talked about
21 many, many issues tonight. I appreciate those
22 issues. They are of a concern to us. We work
23 on it constantly. Our employees here work on
24 it constantly. We provide the funding for
25 them. I sign the checks, so I know, okay? I
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1 know the work effort that they put in. We'll
2 continue to provide that effort.
3 I heard a number of things this
4 evening that we'll work on starting tomorrow
5 morning starting with our people out there. We
6 are not perfect. We are human beings, just
7 like you all here in the audience, but the one
8 thing I can tell you is that it's my
9 responsibility, part of my responsibility is to
10 protect the environment. I take that very
11 seriously, and I'm a professional.
12 And I also want to thank all
13 the professionals that came here tonight. We
14 employ those people. We touch hundreds of
15 thousands of lives every day just here in
16 Northeast Ohio, okay? And when you think about
17 me, you might not care what I have to say
18 because I'm from out-of-state, Florida, but I
19 actually grew up here, so I do care about what
20 I do, and we do provide some of the best
21 professional services in the industry today.
22 So thank you very much.
23 MR. STRAD: All right. That is
24 the end of the comment period here of people
25 that have signed up to speak to us. At this
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1 time I have had a number of letters from people
2 that would like to submit comments to this
3 board, and at this moment I'm going to turn
4 them over to our Court Reporter to enter them
5 into the transcript of tonight's proceedings.
6 So as of right now, this is the
7 end of the public comment period here. I am
8 going to make a motion here that we enter into
9 an executive session to confer with our
10 attorney to discuss pending litigation. The
11 time right now is 7:12 PM.
12 Do I have a second to that
13 motion?
14 MR. ANSTINE: I'll second it.
15 MR. STRAD: Bob, you'll second
16 it. Roll call: Bob?
17 MR. ANSTINE: Yes.
18 MR. STRAD: Doug?
19 MR. BAUM: Yes.
20 MR. STRAD: And Lee, yes. We
21 will come back here with the possibility of
22 some action being taken. We don't know how
23 long we're going to be, so we are going into
24 executive session. Thank you.
25 (Recess was had and meeting was
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1 resumed at 8:15 PM.)
2 MR. STRAD: Do I have a motion
3 to adjourn executive session?
4 MR. ANSTINE: So moved.
5 MS. PERRINE: Second.
6 MR. STRAD: The time is 8:15.
7 The vote will be Bob?
8 MR. ANSTINE: Yes.
9 MR. STRAD: Doug?
10 MR. BAUM: Yes.
11 MR. STRAD: And Lee, yes.
12 Okay. We as a board try to -- the trustees
13 tried very hard to do what we think is best.
14 Doug, would you like to read a prepared
15 statement here?
16 MR. BAUM: First I have my
17 personal comments. I've been a trustee a
18 little over four years. I have learned a lot
19 about what we can and cannot restrict as a
20 township. You cannot restrict truck traffic in
21 and around Countywide Landfill. They have had
22 an agreement with the Solid Waste District
23 since October 6th of 1990.
24 We also cannot demand that the
25 Waste District pay for the funding of the ramp,
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1 which I personally feel should have been taken
2 care of long ago, but I have no control over
3 the decisions made by the Solid Waste District.
4 This could be the only chance we have to get
5 full funding for the ramp, and I'll give my
6 full support to this agreement, take the burden
7 off -- to take the burden of truck traffic off
8 the local roads and give the residents of the
9 existing haul route a sense of normalcy.
10 As far as the odor, we have
11 learned that the township has little control,
12 and I also wonder how much control anyone has,
13 but I can assure Countywide that I will
14 continue to work and assist residents in trying
15 to control the odor through the Health
16 Department and other means available.
17 And then I have a proposed
18 resolution. The board has considered the
19 comments and other information available,
20 including but not limited to the following:
21 Ohio EPA, who are the technical experts in the
22 area of landfill siting, have approved
23 Republic's expansion plan; the history of
24 Countywide Landfill operations; the Pike
25 Township residents' concerns regarding truck
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1 traffic on township and county roads, the
2 desire by Pike Township to retain some control
3 over Countywide's operations, especially hours
4 of operation; the potential risks to the
5 township in litigating the original and amended
6 complaint as advised by counsel; the fact that
7 we, the public, will fund entirely, if
8 necessary, the cost of the ramp mentioned in
9 the proposed settlement agreement. The board
10 has duly elected -- as duly elected
11 representatives, charged with the duty to act
12 for their constituents, has determined that the
13 best interests for Pike Township would be
14 served by approving the proposed settlement
15 agreement by submitting it to Judge Sinclair
16 and asking him to find it fair and reasonable.
17 That's in the form of a resolution.
18 MR. STRAD: Do I have a second
19 to that motion?
20 MR. ANSTINE: I second it.
21 MR. STRAD: Seconded by Bob
22 Anstine. Roll call vote: Bob?
23 MR. ANSTINE: Yes.
24 MR. STRAD: Doug?
25 MR. BAUM: Yes.
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1 MR. STRAD: And Lee Strad, yes.
2 This concludes tonight's meeting of the Pike
3 Township Board of Trustees. We thank you for
4 coming. Do I have a motion to adjourn?
5 MR. ANSTINE: So moved.
6 MR. STRAD: Do I have a second?
7 MR. BAUM: Second, yes.
8 MR. STRAD: The time is 8:19
9 PM. Thank you.
10 MR. BURKHART: I have a motion
11 to adjourn -- I make a motion we adjourn.
12 Second?
13 MR. GROOMS: Second.
14 MS. SNYDER: Second.
15 MR. BURKHART: Nancy?
16 MS. SNYDER: Yes.
17 MR. BURKHART: Audrey?
18 MS. MALAVITE: Yes.
19 MR. BURKHART: Jerry?
20 MR. EIBEL: Yes.
21 MR. BURKHART: Lou?
22 MR. GROOMS: Yes.
23 MR. BURKHART: Bob?
24 MR. MILLER: Yes.
25 - - - - - - -
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1 C E R T I F I C A T E
2 STATE OF OHIO )
)
3 STARK COUNTY )
4 I, Lisa L. Elliott, a Registered Professional
5 Reporter and Notary Public in and for the State of
6 Ohio, duly commissioned and qualified, do hereby
7 certify that the meeting taken was by me, reduced
8 to stenotypy, afterwards transcribed upon a
9 computer, and that the foregoing hearing is a true
10 and correct transcription of the testimony so given
11 as aforesaid.
12 I do further certify that this meeting was
13 taken at the time and place in the foregoing
14 caption specified.
15 I do further certify that I am not a relative,
16 Counsel or attorney of either party, nor otherwise
17 interested in the event of this action.
18 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand
19 and affixed my seal of office at Canton, Ohio on
20 this 29th day of March, 2006.
21 _____________________________
Lisa L. Elliott, RPR & Notary
22 My commission expires 5/22/06
23
24
25
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