I got sick and tired of complaints and losing six hours of time each week for road department employees to clean up the site. Steve Borawski
Ongoing disputes with rude truck drivers, noisy 2 a.m. dumps and pickups, and a contract dispute with the Geauga-Trumbull Solid Waste Management District led Chardon Township Trustees to dispose of its popular recycling center.
Several residents complained to trustees at their July 20 board meeting, after they found the center closed without notice.
“I’m pretty upset about the closing the recycling center,” resident Terry Dorsett said. “It was very, very popular and environmentally responsible.”
Trustee Chuck Strazinsky said the township’s contract with Geauga-Trumbull SWMD stipulated the pickup hours for haulers were 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
“They came at 12:30 a.m., 2 a.m. and 3 a.m.,” Strazinsky said. “They broke things and just left them in the lot. They do whatever the hell they want. Our guys are not sanitation workers, but they had to clean it up.”
Trustee Steve Borawski said Strazinsky was the “last hold-out among the trustees.”
“I wanted to get rid of it a long time ago,” Borawski explained. “I got sick and tired of complaints and losing six hours of time each week for road department employees to clean up the site. You can pay $4 for a recycle container from your waste hauler and do curbside recycling.”
Some users of the center also irked trustees and township workers by dumping trash on the site.
Someone stole a wildlife camera installed to monitor the area, Strazinsky told a resident who asked why the site was not monitored.
Strazinsky, who lives across the street, said the last straw occurred the previous week. The township had cordoned off the center after hours with a chain link fence the road department installed to curtail the late night pickups. However, the truck drivers drove through the fence.
“This is a residential neighborhood. It would be different if it was a commercial area,” Strazinsky explained.
Dorsett asked why truck drivers were not held to the contract.
Strazinsky said the township’s contract with Geauga-Trumbull SWMD was for zero dollars and that the waste haulers had a different contract with the government agency that allowed pickups between 11 a.m. to 4 a.m. He said attempts to talk to the truck drivers resulted in them swearing at him.
“Their contract is very different from ours,” he added. “When we notified (Geauga-Trumbull SWMD) that we wanted to break our contract and discontinue the service, we asked them to continue for 30 days so we could notify our residents. But they came and removed the bins the next day.”
Borawski said the Geauga County Prosecutor’s Office was notified about the ongoing contract discrepancies, but had not responded to trustees.
Paper recycling will continue.
“We’ve had no issues with them and the township receives money from them,” Strazinsky said.
