Memories of the former Kelly Avenue landfill are close to the surface in East Akron.
At the Joy Park Community Center, about 40 community members gathered over a breakfast of French toast, eggs, sausage and bacon Saturday to learn about a new proposal from WM that would build a waste transfer station less than a mile from the park. In the 1960s, the landfill was transformed into the recreation center.
“I was still living here when the dump was here,” said Quintella Walters, who said she felt “intimidated” by the prospect of the waste transfer station being built at 1400 E. Archwood Ave., three-quarters of a mile away. “We don’t want that disease and infection coming in our community.”
A public hearing for the proposal will be held Thursday at 2 p.m. in Akron’s City Council chambers at 166 S. High St.
“There’s a lot of things going on that I don’t like, so I will be there at 1:30, standing at the door,” Walters said.
Suggested Reading
The proposal, which requires City Council approval, would put what WM is calling an Eco-Center on more than 14 acres of vacant land near railroad tracks. The $20 million project would have a waste and recycling transfer station, truck scales, a hauling site, a maintenance shop, an office and a compressed natural gas fueling station, WM spokesperson Mia Jankowiak said in an email.
She said the project is meant “to support cultivation of streamlined waste collection services in the area” to better serve Akron and the surrounding community. It would replace two existing facilities: a waste transfer station at 389 Fountain St. in Middlebury and the Akron Greenstar recycling facility located at 1535 Exeter Road in East Akron.
Jankowiak declined to make someone available to talk about the proposal, which she said would use the “latest technology” to provide increased accessibility to recycling in the area. The existing transfer station contains site restrictions that limit the company’s ability to improve sustainability, she said.
Health concerns at the forefront
At a planning commission meeting this summer, neighbors who live near the Fountain Street facility said they had health concerns as a result of living in the vicinity of the transfer station. The potential health impacts of a new transfer station in Akron are among the primary concerns of nearby East Akron residents.
“This is a health problem,” said Ronald Smith, a lifelong resident of the area. “We have an All-American city. We deserve better than this.”
Johnnie Hannah, the City Council member who represents the area, said he was “101%” opposed to the transfer station being built. But he said he needed residents to back him in order to win the votes of his colleagues.
“Why does Ward 5 always have to be the dumping ground?” Hannah asked. “I’m going to stand up in council for you, but I need your support. I need the galleries full.”
Local businesses are also trying to stop the transfer station from moving forward. Gary Didado, the past-president of JW Didado Electric, and Dan Sublett, its current leader, said if the waste transfer station is built, it will hamper the ability of their company, a half-mile away, to grow.
Now, Sublett said, employees enjoy walking an outdoor path and eating their lunch outside. He’s worried that the smell of trash will make some of those amenities moot.
“How are we supposed to attract talent?” he asked. “Come work here and the trash place is right next door?”
Didado’s sister, Maria Jacobozzi, has her own company, M&M Safety Solutions, nearby. She said her family cares about the community and wants it to be a better place to work and live.
Gearing up for a fight
The businesses hired a lawyer, Tucker Ellis attorney John Slagter, to help fight the proposal. Slagter, who presented concerns about the waste transfer station proposal to residents at Saturday’s breakfast meeting, told nearby residents the building would affect their property values if they owned a home and harm their businesses.
“The fact is, it’s the wrong location,” he said. “We’re going to fight it and stop it, and we need your help.”
He cited expected odors and noise pollution, asking residents whether they would want to live where they lived now if they knew the transfer station would be there. But he didn’t have to do much convincing.
“I really don’t want this here,” said Phyllis Gilchrist, who lives on a street about a mile away. “It’s just racism. They can find someplace else.”
Gilchrist said she would try to take time off from her part-time job as a cafeteria worker at Archbishop Hoban High School to attend the public hearing. Raymond Hinton, who took a yard sign that says “SAY NO” to the transfer station, said he felt like the choice of location, near lower-income East Akron residents, was a form of discrimination.
And Mark Ward, the pastor of Zion Temple Baptist Church, said he was saddened that WM was looking in the neighborhood. The church is less than a mile away from the proposed site; Ward, who said he is a cancer survivor, lives on the same street.
“We’re in support of not supporting this,” he said. “Why would they move it so close to homes here? Why would they not go away from the city of Akron?”
He was frustrated, too, that the public hearing would take place in the middle of the day, when it would be difficult for residents to attend.
Ronald Jackson, whose daughter lives in the area, suggested the business owners consider getting vans or buses to help make it easier for residents to show up for the public hearing.
“In this city, any time you can put 50 to 100 people in any place, people take notice,” he said. “It ain’t over til it’s over.”
