OCTOBER 23, 2018/6:30 PM NORTH CANTON CIVIC CENTER

UPDATED:  2:45 PM

UPDATED:  10/24/2018

Copied to SCPR by interested citizen:

Wow. Have heard that there have been vehement denials from North Canton Officials regarding the meeting tonight regarding the Hoover Contamination,  protesting the assertions that it appeared to citizens and others that they
wanted to keep the public attendance down, "low key", whatever.

Talk is cheap, as they say.  We citizens only need to take stock in all their collective past actions over the many years this contamination has been known.  What have they done in proactive terms?

Case in point:  Instead of maintaining the City's SWAP aka, "Well Head Protection Program" to stay on top of water- related issues, very much against citizens' objections the N.C. officials chose to disband the committee!   Note:  There never was a clear answer as to why this 800 lb. gorilla in the room"  that is subject of tonight's meeting was not even merely listed in that SWAP report. 

We likewise can never forget how citizens were nastily told at a public forum by City officials to "go find the money themselves" if we wanted to see installed a "sentinel" monitoring well placed on the perimeter of the well fields .  ( Interestingly, soon after, they did have reportedly approx. $15,000 dollars for a different kind of well elsewhere that was not scientifically qualified to properly detect any ground water contaminants.)

Ok, so if they are now concerned, let's see what they say, and more importantly DO starting tonight .  Will they reinstate the SWAP? 


 Will they push for health-based standards for PCE/TCE to be adopted here, ones that are more stringent (as cited in the letter to US EPA's Mr. Kelly written by PCE/TCE expert, Lenny Seigel), concerning the levels reported at the Y Daycare and elsewhere?    

A MEETING FOR

NORTH CANTONIANS 

WHO WANT NORTH CANTON'S

UNDERGROUND WATER QUALITY MONITORED BY THE GOVERNMENT

A "SHOULD NOT MISS!" MEETING

On July 10, 2018, The Stark County Political Report (SCPR/The Report) wrote a thoroughgoing blog (LINK) on a development in which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notified Maple Street Commerce LLC and North Canton city officials of potential environmental problems at the former Hoover (as a manufacturer of vacuum sweepers) Plant which sits in the heart of North Canton directly across from North Canton City Hall.

Now the so called "chickens may be coming to roost" in terms of North Canton citizens having some basis to think that their government is downplaying the importance of the meeting of the 24th.

Here is a full copy of Mayor David Held's press release issued on October 3rd:

Some North Cantonians allege to the SCPR an effort by North Canton elected officials  to "low-key" the meeting in hopes that the meeting will be sparsely attended.

How did these folks learn of the meeting, to wit:

From: "Kelly, Joseph" <kelly.joseph@epa.gov>
Date: October 18, 2018 at 9:28:33 AM EDT
To: Rita Palmer <rjpalmer@neo.rr.com>
Subject: Hoover site

Hello Ms. Palmer,

I wanted to let you know that EPA will be in North Canton on Wed., Oct 24 to provide a brief update on the RCRA work, including a summary of sampling results, followed by an availability session for specific questions about the work that is being done.  The session is scheduled for 6:30 at the Civic Center. I hope you are able to attend if you still have interests in the property.

Regards,

Knowing that there was a dearth of information about Wednesday's meeting in the mainstream media, why did it take North Canton civic activists three (3) days to clue in The Stark County Political Report?

They have to know, Stark Countians know, and, indeed North Cantonians know as well as everybody else consuming political/governmental news certainly know:  Only the SCPR among Stark County media can be relied upon to make sure Stark Countians get "the full story" on the important information that affects all of us in relation to Stark County government and its political subdivisions.

As The Report always does (when they will talk to this incisive-questioning blogger), made contact with a North Canton elected official who is in a position to answer questions on whether or not the lack of publicity on the upcoming Wednesday meeting has been purposely "low-keyed" by North Canton officials so as to minimize North Canton public attendance/participation at/in the meeting.

Undoubtedly, SCPR readers will, even before it is stated by this blogger, predict that the North Canton official The Report talked with on Sunday evening strongly denied that North Canton government was trying to low-key Wednesday's EPA meeting.

However, as the SCPR has written repeatedly over recent years, it appears that North Canton government (mostly as manifested by many of  the Council members and its law director) is in an overall sense hostile and antagonistic in its relationship with the "questioning" North Canton public.

So The Report is skeptical of the denial.

On the side of North Canton government transparency about the Wednesday meeting is the following: (from a press release generated by Mayor David Held)

Additional arguments supporting that North Canton government is not trying to hide the EPA pending meeting with North Cantonians include:

• The meeting is schedule for the North Canton Civic Center which has a much larger capacity to handle an "overflow" crowd for the meeting should it materialize,
• An assertion by the SCPR's "official" source that BUT FOR North Canton officials, months before the June 13, 2018 letter (see graphic above), initiated contact with the EPA in Chicago to inquire about the viability (from an environmental standpoint) of the entire form Hoover factory complex being converted into a commercial productive facility,
• The June 13th letter seems to indicate that the EPA sees resolving any environmental concerns at the facility as feasible but will only be given the go ahead by EPA after thorough testing which produce results that the resulting rehab renders quarters which are not harmful to human health,
• Wednesday's meeting is said by The Report's source to be an "status update" on the pathway to getting Maple Street Commerce LLC om full EPA compliance,

However, there are factors which suggest to the SCPR that suspicions that the meeting is being "low-keyed" to achieve minimal public attendance/participation, to wit:

• Though Mayor Held did issue a press release on October  3rd, it would be interesting where the release was sent to and why North Canton officialdom did not follow up the release with telephone contact when no publicity about the meeting (so it appears) has not been published in any Stark County media publication in the week leading up to Wednesday,
• NOTE:  As readers know, the SCPR over the years has done extensive coverage of North Canton government and this blogger can say with certainty that a copy of the Held press release was not forwarded to The Report,
• The Report does get notices of other meeting (including council meetings) via e-mail,
• It has been suggested to the SCPR by North Canton government official  that The Repository has not served the North Canton public effectively in not picking up on the press release and publicizing the meeting on the theory that The Rep gets many press releases and simply failed to pick up on the North Canton EPA meeting,
• The Report is told that "no" notice of the meeting has been posted on the North Canton government website which is supposedly kept up-to-date at taxpayer expense,
• North Canton government apparently has not produced any flyers heralding Wednesday's meeting for placement in public facilities (e.g. the North Canton Library, eateries throughout the city and the like),
• One North Canton citizen only learned about Wednesday's meeting after having very recently be notified of it by a US EPA official,

Here is a statement by Repository executive editor Rich Desrosiers indicating The Rep's reaction to not having heretofore published notice of the Wednesday meeting.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Desrosiers, Rich <rich.desrosiers@cantonrep.com>
To: crborello <crborello@aol.com>

Sent: Mon, Oct 22, 2018 10:25 am

Subject: Re: U.S. EPA UPDATE ON VAPOR INTRUSION INVESTIGATION AT FORMER HOOVER FACILITY TO BE PRESENTED WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2018, AT NORTH CANTON CIVIC CENTER

Chris:

We’ll have a meeting notice published online momentarily and in the paper tomorrow. 

It is unclear whether or not The Rep received a copy of the October 3rd Held generated press release a copy of which has been included in this blog.

Here is an "unnamed" citizen's (a former North Canton schoolteacher) summary of the unfolding of events which indicate that there might well be an attempt by North Canton government to stifle information getting out to the North Canton public and thereby precipitating "a crowd surge" and the Wednesday meeting, to wit:

Just got this from a N. Canton resident, former teacher ...Wow...Like I said earlier, dirty , corrupt...

-----Original Message-----
From: eo.rr.com>
To: crborello <crborello@aol.com>
Sent: Sun, Oct 21, 2018 8:57 pm
Subject: RE: region 5

Chris,
      The Oct 3rd date is on the actual Press Release sent by Joe Kelly to Mayor Held.

      I posted the Wednesday  meeting info on North Neighbor News (2000+ NC members) and on my Facebook page. I have few connections on FB so that will probably not help much.

      Tonight I called Councilman Mark Cerretta to ask for details about  the meeting, and he said he heard about the meeting from the Rep and online. Then he thought about it a minute and said it was from North Neighbor News! [I told him no one had seen it in the Rep!] He then admitted that he did not know about it until he saw MY ONLINE POSTING! So he called Pat DeOrio  ( city administrator) for more info and called me back. 

Pat said this is just a routine distribution meeting of info that the EPA does every 2 years. He said that he (Pat) gave the Press Release to the Rep "a couple days ago." Mark and Pat I guess agreed that the Rep does not need to print the release. It is up to them [paper] to decide. [I think they were downplaying this meeting as ho-hum routine meeting...]

       If all the council attends, however, then it would be a public meeting and it would have to be in the paper in advance. Mark said that council was not told to attend but that on Monday at the regular meeting, something may be said.

       Last Friday night I emailed Rich Desrosiers to ask for the meeting info to be put out there in the paper. He did not respond. Melanie did the same thing and got a "thank you." So I just emailed Rich again and said I was worried that no one will know about the meeting if the printed Rep does not publish something.  [I recapped my conversation with Mark minus the name.] I asked him to let me know if he got the email. I am waiting....

       I told Rich that I got the notice of the meeting from EPA's Joe Kelly directly. I asked Rich how would citizens and council know of the meeting if I had not gotten the personal invite to attend??? I hope he obliges me and prints the notice. Rita

From: crborello@aol.com <crborello@aol.com> 
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2018 7:27 PM

The Report is told by a member of North Canton government that officials fully support the EPA's work on the former Hoover complex and that though officials are confident that the EPA through periodic inspections will ensure that EPA required compliance as been met in full before any further development of the complex is allowed to proceed and that remediation will ultimately occur.

Wednesday should tell the tale about the forthcomingness of North Canton government on the environmental concerns being scrutinized by the United States Environmental Protection Agency!

The key question is:  With the 300 employee plus Schrorer Group leaving the North Canton Maple Street Commerce LLC owned former Hoover complex, are North Canton officials scrambling to get more of the facility EPA approved in a quest to mitigate the Schroer loss and wants to deal with environmental concerns "out of the light of day?"

Make no mistake about it.

North Canton officials are smarting over the loss of the Schroer Group.

But they only have themselves to blame and city officials' apparent inability to rein in Maple Street Commerce LLC majority owner Stu Lichter in his lessor/lessee relationship with Schroer.

The Schroer move has been rumored for some time and yet North Canton government officials obviously did not have the economic development skilled personnel in place to prevent what became official last Wednesday at the regular weekly meeting of the Stark County commissioners.

Moreover, here is a SCPR video of a post-resolution-press-conference of October 17th in which commissioners were questioned about the details of their approving the above resolution.



If North Canton does not get its act together soon, the future of North Canton looks bleak indeed!

Environmental concerns at the former Hoover complex only makes the picture look bleaker.