DISCUSSION: PART III - WILL OSNABURG TOWNSHIP'S FIGHT TO KEEP ESLICH ENVIRONMENTAL, INC'S C & D OPERATION FROM EXPANDING - SUCCEED?

This post in Part III of a three part serious presenting the issues revolving around the future of a Construction and Demolition Debris site located now in Osnaburg Township.

What is the fight?

Township trustees, a number of township residents as well as a collection of East Canton citizens fear that a re-zone ordinance now under consideration by East Canton Village Council (which is a prelude to annexation of the disputed iste) will allow the C&DD to expand way beyond its present size of approximately 20 acres.

East Canton takes the position that it is in the best position to protect area residents from the C&DD becoming a community problem.

The township has zoning violation and environmental violation legal proceedings in progress and wants East Canton to stand aside until the legal wranglings are decided.

The township is confident that it will win in the legal arena and that there will be no expansion beyond the C&DD's current size.

Part I of this series dealt with legal counsel explaining from his perspective what the proposed re-zone/annexation would achieve.

Part II of the series covers expressed citizen skepticism and a plea by these opponents of East Canton's contemplated action that the village not act and give the township an opportunity "to have its day in Court," so to speak.

Part III presents an exchance between various village councilmen and Trustee Donna Middaugh on village intentions and consequences of village action/inaction.

What follows is the text of an e-mail received by the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) on December 10th. To wit:

I did talk to Kirk Norris at the Health Department about the size of the landfill. The original application filed in September 2005 was for a total footprint of 117.4 acres.

If the setback of 1,000 feet from water wells is considered, the landfill would be about 80 acres total. The 80 acres includes the present landfill of 20 acres ALDA (active) and 8.5 acres ILDA (Inactive - future growth). I was wrong with the 108.5 acre size that would be 80 acres in addition to the present landfill.

However, if the Village water lines were extended out to the water wells involved, the setbacks would not be needed and the landfill would be over 100 acres. The proposed setback of 300 feet from the property lines would reduce the 117.4 acre footprint by only a few acres - maybe 10 acres. If the Township would lose the zoning court case, our worst case situation and the Village I-2 district would only differ by a few acres. If the Township wins the zoning case, we could set the size at 20 acres. Big difference!

I hope the Village will wait until our zoning court case and the ERAC cases are resolved before trying to annex again.

What follows is a video of the exchange between village council members, Trustee Middaugh and the presentation of a Motion to Table by Councilman Nick Collins followed at the end of the video with a vote approving the motion.