Chris Borello of the Concerned Citizens of Lake Township (CCLT) ticks off a long list of Stark County politicians who have failed her and citizens action organization get the "Uniontown Dump" (officially known as the Industrial Excess Landfill - IEL) cleaned up.
Since the early 1980s the group has fought to get the industrial contaminants buried by Goodyear, Firestone, et al and the U.S. Military at the northern Stark County site identified and removed.
Now the Borello lead group has a new concern. Is the IEL about to be delisted from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) Superfund list. Borello tells the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) that she fears that there is a move afoot among area political and business leaders to have the IEL downgraded to being a "brownfield" and therefore eligible for industrial/commercial redevelopment after remediated under a much less rigorous standard from "brownfield" status.
Borello cites a number of familiar Stark County political names and civic leaders as being unhelpful - in the end - in the dealing with the possible problems to the health and safety of Lake Township residents as well as other Stark Countians downstream from the flow of underground water sources from the IEL.
Ralph Regula (the 16th District Republican retiring congressman from Navarre) is at the head of the list. Of all the Stark politicians with whom the CCLT has dealt, Regula, stands out as the person with the most political clout who has not been willing to help solve the IEL problem.
Borello does not believe that would-be successors to Regula, Boccieri and Schuring (who has, as a state senator, refused to meet with Borello on the issue), will be interested in helping the CCLT from keeping the Uniontown site from being delisted from Superfund.
Borello's main hope to get a turnaround on the thinking about IEL is the election of Barack Obama and the changes his election will bring to the administration of the US EPA.
Former Stark County prosecutor Robert Horowitz (now deceased) and Lake Township trustee Sue Ruley (now deceased) are named by Borello as area politicians who went from - being very interested and helpful in attending to IEL - to giving up on or, in the case of Ruley, opposing the CCLT promoted plan to clean up the problem.
Others on Borello's list of as unhelpful and/or disinterested Stark County politicians included former county commissioner Richard Regula (Ralph's son) and Ohio Representative Scott Oelslager. Richard Regula is an interesting case because he as commissioner was very active in helping area citizen action groups in working on concerns about the Countywide dump in southern Stark County. Why not the IEL?
Borello's take on former state representative Johnnie A. Maier, Jr., (now Stark County Democratic Party chairman) who served the Uniontown area for a number of years since the discovery of the toxic-laden Uniontown dump is ho-hum in that she doesn't recall him doing anything significant to help in remediation. This doesn't surprise. The Report sees Maier as a political operative past and present who had very little, if anything, in terms of impact in dealing with the needs the district during his tenure.
The Report specifically inquired of Borello on current state representative John Hagan who now represents the Uniontown area (now running for county commissioner). Not a word from on anything positive coming from Hagan. Again, no surprise here. The Report views Hagan as a "vegetative" politician.
The Report's point in doing this piece on the Uniontown IEL is to highlight to Stark Countians the frustration that any Stark County citizen is likely to encounter if he/she seeks to enlist the aid of area politicians to solve a given problem - especially if it is marked by a significant degree of controversy.
Borello is pleased that sitting Commissioner Todd Bosley has recently signed and sent a letter to the US EPA requesting that the Uniontown IEL remain listed on Superfund. Bosley may be the political person she has been waiting for over these 25 plus years as one who is willing to help a Stark County citizen trying to do good for her neighbors.
Question: Thinking over the long list of Stark County politicians, is there one you can list as one who will help an everyday citizen solve a Stark County problem? If so, give examples (name the politician and the action taken).
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