Tensions were high Monday as some members of Akron City Council pushed for a decision on a proposed waste transfer station that would close a dilapidated Middlebury facility, along with a recycling center on Exeter Road, and open a new waste hub in East Akron. There was just one problem: no community meeting to outline the proposal to those East Akron residents had ever been held.
Council members were incredulous that Johnnie Hannah, who represents both communities as the Ward 5 council member, had failed to gather residents to explain the proposal before a public hearing last Thursday that lasted more than nine hours.
Hannah asked for more time Monday, saying he’d asked WM, the company proposing to build the new waste transfer station, to talk to residents Oct. 17 and was waiting for confirmation. His colleagues — two of whom had their own community meetings over the summer, which he attended — said they thought Ward 5 residents should have the courtesy of an information session, but they were disturbed that Hannah didn’t initiate one.
“I’m willing to take the time, but let’s get going,” said Council Member Donnie Kammer, who said he was ready to vote to approve the facility. “We’ve known about this since July. Let’s get going.”
Council will wait to vote on transfer station
The call to hold an immediate vote on the transfer station failed 5-8, and the proposal will come back at a later meeting. But the discussion laid bare frustrations among members of council and the city administration.
In criticizing her colleagues for pushing for a vote despite Hannah’s request that it be delayed, Council President Margo Sommerville said it seemed “intentional” that nearby residents in wards 10 and 6 had community meetings over the summer to discuss the proposal while Ward 5 did not.
Sommerville lambasted colleagues for pushing for a vote, saying she was “disheartened.”
And she called it “disturbing” that Hannah was not the first person the administration talked to when the transfer station at 1400 E. Archwood Ave. was originally proposed.
“At what point did someone from this administration not think or find it important enough to pick up the phone to inform Councilman Hannah?” she asked.
Council member says city went ‘above and beyond’ notifying residents
The administration pushed back on the accusation. Chief of Strategy Nanette Pitt told council members that she met with representatives in the affected areas, including Hannah, as early as May to give them information about the waste transfer station proposal.
Pitt said she and Sustainability Director Casey Shevlin sent letters and knocked on the doors of businesses and residents well beyond the typical notification area for a zoning issue. And they attended a July ward meeting Hannah hosted to tell residents what would be considered, she said, but, due to a full meeting agenda, “we were not able to speak.”
“I believe the administration has gone above and beyond,” Council Member Tina Boyes said of the efforts of Mayor Shammas Malik and his staff. Those efforts included sending 177 letters to nearby property owners ahead of a July planning commission meeting, Council Vice President Jeff Fusco said.
Hannah said he did not know location of proposed transfer station, though email indicates otherwise
Still, Hannah said he was not aware.
“When I was invited to Ward 10 and Ward 6 meetings, I was under the impression the waste transfer station would be in one of their wards, not Ward 5,” he said. “I went to their meetings, I did. I was under the impression it would not affect Ward 5.”
An email Hannah sent to local residents advocating for the new transfer station and shared with Signal Akron shows that Hannah was aware of the proposed transfer station location as early as July. After a visit to WM’s Oakwood facility, Hannah said in the email he was “on board with the move as long as the residents at the new location” didn’t oppose it.
“My concerns about the odor was addressed and I did not smell any foul odor,” he said in the July 25 email. “I think the new plant will be far enough from the residents that the smell if any will not have an effect.”
Middlebury residents continue to await decision
Hannah holds ward meetings every other month and told council members he would have called an emergency meeting for June if he had realized local residents would be affected. As it was, his fellow council members considered him a co-host of their monthly Ward 6 and Ward 10 meetings where the issue was discussed in June.
“It’s not Ward 10’s or Ward 6’s fault that Councilman Hannah didn’t have a meeting that month,” said Council Member Brad McKitrick, who represents Ward 6.
Ward 10 representative Sharon Connor, who pushed for the vote, said it was unfair to Middlebury residents who had lived with the dilapidated Fountain Street transfer station for decades that a decision to close that facility was being delayed because a meeting wasn’t held.
“You could have a special called meeting if it’s something this critical,” said at-large Council Member Linda F.R. Omobien. “That area is terrible, and those people have suffered greatly.”
‘More can be done’ to inform East Akron residents about proposal
Before the council meeting, Hannah blamed the lack of a community meeting on a “misunderstanding” that he wouldn’t describe.
“It should have happened, but it didn’t,” he said.
At the Monday council meeting, Hannah asked colleagues to raise their hands if they would want a waste transfer station in their communities. No one did.
“I’m defending Ward 5, and I will defend Ward 5 until the end,” he said.
With a September chemical fire in East Akron that led to evacuations, a mass shooting in the community in June that left one dead and his own home going up in flames this spring, Hannah “has had a lot to deal with” the past several months, Fusco said. But that didn’t mean that residents who would be affected by potentially closing one waste transfer station and opening another one should be the ones to suffer.
“Without question, more can be done,” Fusco added.
Council members who voted to hold the vote Monday:
Phil Lombardo, Ward 2
Brad McKitrick, Ward 6
Bruce Bolden, Ward 8
Sharon Connor, Ward 10
Linda Omobien, At-large
Council members who voted against holding the vote Monday:
Samuel DeShazior, Ward 1
President Margo Sommerville, Ward 3
Jan Davis, Ward 4
Johnnie Hannah, Ward 5
Donnie Kammer, Ward 7
Tina Boyes, Ward 9
Vice President Jeff Fusco, At-large
Eric Garrett, At-large
