Holmes County updates waste management plan
Holmes County updated its new waste management plan, which includes the 11 recycling drop spots around the county.
The Holmes County commissioners and Holmes County District Policy Committee recently passed a resolution adopting the solid waste management plan. The two groups gathered at the commissioners’ meeting room in the Old Jail in Millersburg, completing and passing the drafted resolution.
The district policy committee reviewed the nonbinding advisory opinion received from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, took the recommendations and put them into place in the county’s policy.
According to the commissioners, the solid waste management plan is something that needs to take place every five years, and they are currently more than happy with the way things have progressed in recent years.
“We’ve been working with Jim for the past couple times we have created a plan, and he’s been very good to work with,” commissioner Rob Ault said. “The nice thing for us is we are our own entity. We aren’t working with other counties, so we have control over what is going on.”
The commissioners and committee worked closely with Jim Skora, senior manager of GT Environmental Inc.’s Northern Ohio office in Stow, which joined Tim Morris, Holmes County director of buildings and grounds and solid waste, and Susan Schie, Holmes County clerk, in fashioning a workable plan for solid waste.
“We’re in good shape. I think we have a good plan, and a lot of good people were in place to put this plan into action,” Skora said. “The main goal is to make sure we are in compliance while continuing to offer the best options for the people of Holmes County. This update was a real team effort.”
The district solid waste plan includes a solid waste facility inventory, projections and strategies, facilities and programs to be used, an analysis of progress made toward achieving state waste reduction goals, cost to finance plans, and district rules.
The updated plan includes the following programs: curbside recycling, drop-off recycling, surveying/voluntary recycling, electronics recycling, scrap tires recycling, appliance recycling, lead-acid battery and used oil recycling, yard waste management, residential education, litter collection, health department partnership, and legal and general plan implementation.
Committee members included Sarah Burkholder of the Holmes County Health Department, Schie, Morris, Village of Millersburg administrator Nate Troyer, Holmes County planning commissioner Arnie Oliver and Skora.
The committee quickly passed the motion to move the newly created solid waste plan together. Skora said the next step will be to create a cover letter, and he will work with Schie and Morris to create a summary to the plan and a link that the necessary parties involved with ratifying it can gain access to it.
Skora said once the plan is listed, county officials, township trustees, and city and village officials will have a 90-day period to ratify it.
Burkholder then spoke briefly to the committee about the role the Holmes County Health Department plays in the county’s solid waste efforts.
She said the district spends around 200 hours a year following up solid waste complaint issues, does quarterly inspections of the closed landfill and does the same with the infectious waste generator at Pomerene Hospital.
She said the district also secured a litter-prevention grant through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, has worked with several different local organizations and placed a recycling dumpster by Rodhe’s IGA in Millersburg.
“We spend a significant amount of time in the solid waste program,” Burkholder said. “We are an EPA-approved health department, and we currently have zero funding for our solid waste program. It is very difficult to keep this program afloat with our requirements from the EPA.”
She then asked the commissioners consider creating a $10,000 annual fund to keep the program solvent. She said the county is mandated by the state to do the quarterly inspections and follow-ups.
She then spoke about the significant nuisance inspections and clean-up requests the health department receives.
“In order to do the nuisance investigations, we must follow all of their guidelines once a month until the nuisance has abated,” Burkholder said. “We are usually able to get these nuisances abated within one year, but we do currently have some significant nuisance clean-up sights that we are dealing with that take up a large amount of our time. It has become a significant financial strain on our department.”
She said should a landowner with a nuisance site not comply and fail to clean up their property and the effort stalls or does not make progress, the district could charge the landowner fees.
“It is something that could eventually be assessed to their property taxes,” Burkholder said. “Even at that, we are not guaranteed a substantial return.”
She said the health district will field waste nuisance concern reports anonymously, and she said the department investigates any notification. She went on to note that when they do respond, they try to do so with compassion because they understand it can be an invasive procedure to inspect someone’s home and property.
Commissioner Joe Miller said the commissioners would discuss what possible aid the county could provide to appease the health department’s situation.