Road repairs near landfill to be funded
The Akron Beacon Journal
BOLIVAR - Stark County Engineer Michael Rehfus is getting $100,000 to repair roads around a landfill in southern Stark County.
The Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Solid Waste Management District voted Friday to allocate the money for much-needed repairs on county roads around the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in Pike Township.
The work will be funded by interest, not tipping fees, officials said.
The garbage district had rejected three earlier requests for $147,756 for the roadwork.
The Stark County commissioners expressed gratitude at the reversal.
Rehfus told the district he is satisfied with the funding, said Tuscarawas County Commissioner Kerry Metzger, who worked out the agreement as head of the district's landfill committee.
Efforts to reach Rehfus late Friday afternoon for comment were unsuccessful.
The money will be used to repair Dueber Avenue Southwest, Sherman Church Road, Gracemont Street and Fohl Street from Interstate 77 south of Canton to the 258-acre landfill. The county roads are used by garbage trucks to get to and from the dump.
Rehfus had threatened to lower the weight limit on the roads to reduce the damage; that could have had a big impact on garbage haulers and the landfill.
Countywide, owned and operated by Republic Waste Services of Ohio, pushed strongly to get the roadwork paid for by the garbage district.
The garbage district will prepare a long-term policy on roadwork funding a process that will take several months, Metzger said.
The district would like to fund the roadwork with tipping fees, but that is not allowed by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, which is overseeing the district's operations under a new plan. As a result, the district agreed to fund the road repairs from interest income.
Metzger said the district's landfill committee is working on a long-term policy on paying for road improvements near three landfills, but that review may not be complete until September.
