RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS MEETING OF THE LORDSTOWN VILLAGE BOARD OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS 1455 Salt Springs Road, Lordstown, Ohio June 10, 2015 6:00 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. IN ATTENDANCE: Mr. Kevin Campbell, President Mr. John Gillespie, Board Member Ms. Cinthia Slusarczyk, Clerk RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS taken before me, DEBORAH LAVELLE, RPR, a court reporter and Notary Public within and for the State of Ohio on this 10th of June, 2015. MR. CAMPBELL: All right. It's 6:00. I'm gonna go ahead and call our meeting to order. So will you please stand with me for the Lord's Prayer and Pledge of is Allegiance. (The Lord's Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance are recited at this time.) MR. CAMPBELL: I'm gonna make a motion to excuse Tom Dietz tonight from our meeting. He's not feeling well tonight. MR. GILLESPIE: I'll second it. MR. CAMPBELL: All in favor? (All respond aye). MR. CAMPBELL: All opposed? Motion carries to excuse Tom. ROLL CALL: MR. CAMPBELL: Cindy, would you do roll call please. MS. SLUSARCZYK: Kevin Campbell. MR. CAMPBELL: Here. MS. SLUSARCZYK: Thomas Dietz. John Gillespie. MR. GILLESPIE: Present. MS. SLUSARCZYK: Bruce Platt. Cinthia Slusarczyk, present. AGENDA: The purpose of this meeting is to hear the public's comments and/or concerns regarding residential trash and recycling collection within the Village of Lordstown. MR. CAMPBELL: Okay. I guess our first thing I want to make sure, we do have a sign-in sheet over there. If you haven't signed in, please be so kind as to take a minute and sign in at our sign-in sheet there. The purpose of this meeting is just to give an opportunity for the community to voice their concerns, how things are working, what they're interested in for the garbage and recycling. We labeled it recycling because most people have larger concerns with that, but it's also for garbage because it's a package that we have to put together that goes out to bid. So we're gathering -- one of the things we did was the questionnaire that went out in the newsletter. So we got a substantial feedback that I'm pleasantly surprised that that worked well. So we got a good feedback and response from a good chunk -- I would say we got 80 maybe. I don't know, I didn't count them, but we got enough back to get a feel for some of the aspects we were looking for. And we also wanted to hold this meeting so people that didn't get a chance to voice it through there had a chance to come and voice some concerns about it. I do want to apologize again for last year how things went. We're looking to do things better this year, and this is one of the meetings to do that. So I'd like to invite for anyone that's in our audience to come up to the mic, give us your name and your address so we know who's speaking. And try to keep it to five minutes so we have a chance for everyone to voice their concerns or
questions or something you might have to bring. We might have an answer, we may not. If you have a question for us, we'll do our best to get something back to you if we don't have it. But is there anything else you wanted to add, John? MR. GILLESPIE: No, I think that's pretty good. MR. CAMPBELL: Okay. We'll open it up now to comments or concerns for the garbage or recycling. COMMENTS BY KAREN JONES: Karen Jones, 2786 Hallock Young Road, Warren, Lordstown, whatever. I just want to say that I have been using the bag service for the last several years, and I hope you continue to do that because myself and my husband, we don't produce a lot of trash. And we do a heavy amount of recycling. And I know I have several family members and friends living here that are single or elderly, and the bag service is very beneficial to us. Thank you. MR. CAMPBELL: Okay. COMMENTS BY JOHN GODDARD: John Goddard, 6317 Highland Avenue. I pretty much agree with her comments. I prefer the bag system. I like the option of having the recycling dumpsters over here to put my recycling in. I regularly recycle, and I feel keeping both options open is the way to go. Thank you. MR. CAMPBELL: I got a quick question. MR. GODDARD: Yes. MR. CAMPBELL: With the bag service -- and I guess this goes with Karen too -- are you interested in the curbside recycling with bag service or just the way it is now. MR. GODDARD: I would prefer it stay the way it is. MRS. JONES: Me as well because, you know, this is handy when you're going to Niles or whether you're coming here. MR. CAMPBELL: Because we have had some requests, I want to make sure we capture that. Thank you. COMMENTS BY KAY ARLO: Kay Arlo, 5060 Highland, Lordstown. I too use the bag service, and we -- my sister and I recycle here at the Village. And it works for us because again we have very, very little. Most of mine is newspaper. I do have a comment about the recycling bins here. The last time we recycled there was hoses, a T.V. in there. I would suggest putting a camera there so you can see how people are recycling because I know it's open to people not only just in Lordstown. MR. CAMPBELL: Correct. MRS. ARLO: But I would prefer to keep everything the way it is. MR. CAMPBELL: OKAY. Thank you. COMMENTS BY ROBERT BOND: Robert Bond, 4970 Highland Avenue. I want to reiterate, I think the recycling needs to be -- bins need to be retained over here. I don't see any need for the people that are on bags to have the curbside. The bags are going mostly, from what I've been able to find out, to houses with one, two occupants. Not for families. So we're still leaving all our families paying for not only garbage service but mandated recycling that the Village has mandated or the BPA, not the state nor the federal. I would like to see the recycling made voluntary for those of us that maintain regular garbage service. We can either use the bins up here, or if they choose not to recycle that's their choice and it's legal. I think making everybody pay -- because now the way it's lumped into the bill, new residents coming in won't realize they're actually paying the recycling charge. I know it was done that way I think to take and cool things off -- I'll put it that way -- and which was -- I can understand. But I think we should go back to that system of doing it, keep the bag service, keep the recycling bins here,
let the people have their choice. MR. CAMPBELL: Okay. MR. BOND: Thank you. COMMENTS BY RICHARD COE: My name is Richard Coe. I live at 3391 Lyntz Road in Lordstown. We have the recycling that -- we use the recycling bin at the house and -- but we also use the one down here for -- because we get quite a bit of cardboard and stuff that's a lot bigger. It fills out our bins at home too quickly. But we get a lot of use out of our bin at home. We -- it's right next to our door outside, and every other week we have a full bin of recycling. It's very convenient for us. We're real busy during the week, and it's convenient. But it's nice to have the ones down here also to put your bigger stuff in when you need to. I think it works well. MR. CAMPBELL: A question that I have with that aspect. Right now it's collected every other week. Would it be any interest of maybe seeing that it might be increased if there is a -- I mean every other week seems to work with your schedule? MR. COE: Yeah, every other week is good with us. I think -- there's just my wife and I. Now maybe a bigger family might be inclined to fill it up quicker. But we do a lot of recycling and it's -- every other week is fine. MR. GILLESPIE: Can I ask you a question. Has your garbage amount reduced significantly? MR. COE: We put out one bag a week. MR. GILLESPIE: How did you do before, did you have more? MR. COE: Not really because we used to save -- my wife's into recycling. So we used to end up saving the stuff and bringing it down here. It's just more convenient to have it right there at the house. But it's nice to have that because there are occasions where we get some stuff delivered and that kind of stuff, equipment and that kind of stuff, and you have the great big cardboard and otherwise you gotta try to cut it up in small pieces. It's easier to bring it in the bin and put it down here. A lot of times the bins are full, you can't put anything in it so -- COMMENTS BY NANCY TRUSZ: I'm Nancy Trusz, 6330 Highland Avenue. I live by myself and I love the bags because I can go at least two weeks, if not three, with just one person living there. And I do recycling on my own. So I would just prefer it stays exactly the way it is. Thank you. COMMENTS BY DON PROKOP: Don Prokop, 8341 Highland Avenue. I pretty much agree with everybody and Bob that the people that have the bins should have the option for the recycling. I think a lot of them don't know that they're paying for it anyway and they really don't need it -- if they don't need it. So -- and definitely keep this. MR. CAMPBELL: Oh, the dumpsters here. MR. PROKOP: Because we were doing it before like everybody else, and there's no reason to change it really. MR. CAMPBELL: Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. MR. CAMPBELL: Any other comments? Is there something that hasn't already been said? The last two, you might as well say something. MR. BOND: Can you give us some breakdown about how your responses from the newsletter were. MR. CAMPBELL: The majority of them were in support of the recycling and that the large containers work well for them. We had
a couple -- I think we only had one -- we asked for some response on maybe getting a committee together to help, but there was only one person that took us up on that offer. But the majority of them, I think out of -- well, you can hold up the stack of them. MS. SLUSARCZYK: You can look at them. MR. CAMPBELL: Maybe 50 or 60 maybe. There's not 70 of them. But out of all those, the bulk of it was -- and we had also many that voiced keep the bags, keep the bags. MR. BOND: I've heard a lot of people say they switched to the bag. MR. CAMPBELL: A lot of them did switch to the bag from -- yeah, when we went through the ordeal last year. And the people that went to the bags seem to love the bags, and I can't see us not putting that in the bid package that goes out. What we do is we put together what we want in a service, and it goes out and it goes to bid. And whoever can met those criteria will put a bid on it, and it's up to us to decide what package to pick. So that's why we're trying to collect and see how it's going to the community. It's not a dumb question. COMMENTS BY JOHN GODDARD: John Goddard, 6370 Highland. If the system would be changed at the first of the year, I think that's when the contract is up, will the bags that we already have still be good? You may change carriers. MS. SLUSARCZYK: Not if it's a different provider. Those bags are only good with Republic Services Allied Waste. MR. PROKOP: Would we be able it get a refund for the bags? MS. SLUSARCZYK: That's all we sell for Republic Services. You would really have to contact them and see. MRS. JONES: If you have bags that you want to sell, I could probably find a lot of people that would buy them from you. MR. PROKOP: If it switches -- MR. CAMPBELL: If it ends up going to a different vendor -- MR. PROKOP: It's the first of the year? MR. CAMPBELL: That's when the contract will go into effect. MR. PROKOP: So you will know ahead of time? MR. CAMPBELL: The bid book comes together, we approve it, then we can release information and say here's what's accepted and here's what's changed and here's what to expect. MR. PROKOP: Trying not to have too many bags at the end of the year. Okay, thank you. MR. CAMPBELL: Anything else you want to bring up? MS. SLUSARCZYK: If you don't mind. I would like to mention that the recycling that's provided here at the Village is done through Geauga Trumbull Solid Waste District, and the Board does not have any control over that. I do know that the last time they put their contract out to bid they had difficulty getting somebody to bid the project and take the recycling away because it's not as worthwhile as it once was. And the cardboard recycling is provided free to us through Republic Services. So if they were not our vendor going forward in 2016 that would be -- the cardboard recycling for sure would disappear. And in addition to the cardboard recycling, they have turned to actually charging to provide cardboard recycling because we're in a contract. When they bill the Village they had it repeal the bill and take it back, and we do have free recycling through the end of the year. MR. CAMPBELL: For the cardboard. MS. SLUSARCZYK: For cardboard, yes, at the Village Center here, the recycling here. MRS. JONES: But the other bids from Geauga Trumbull they do permanent cardboard as well. Yes, they do. Yes, they do. It's
right on the outside. MS. SLUSARCZYK: Then that's -- that might be. MR. CAMPBELL: Oh, normally where the plastic stuff -- it's just harder to get in there with the grating and stuff and. Yeah. Yeah. I know it's a little confusing between what's there and what -- we're recouping information in -- MR. PROKOP: Would the bids be put out to tell them we want a free cardboard thing? MR. CAMPBELL: That would be something we would have to work through depending on the situation and who it goes through. MR. BOND: Cardboard at one time was one thing they made good money on. MR. CAMPBELL: Yes. It's like -- I guess it's like many other markets, it changes. MR. BOND: Well, they export it to China. MR. PROKOP: That's where most of it goes. MR. CAMPBELL: Okay. Well I don't want to get into like an open debate at this point, so if there's any other comments that we can use towards it I really appreciate that. If there's nothing else then we'll -- and there's nothing else from John or Cindy that you can think we want to add -- MR. GILLESPIE: No. MR. CAMPBELL: Going once, twice, all right. I'll take a motion for adjournment. MR. GILLESPIE: I make a motion that we adjourn. MR. CAMPBELL: I second that motion. All in favor? (All answer aye). MR. CAMPBELL: All opposed? All right. Thank you everybody. Appreciate it. C E R T I F I C A T E STATE OF OHIO ) TRUMBULL COUNTY ) SS. I, Deborah I. Lavelle, a Notary Public in and for the State of Ohio, duly commissioned and qualified, do hereby certify that the foregoing meeting before the Board of Public Affairs was written by me in the presence of the Members and transcribed by me using computer-aided transcription according to the stenotype notes taken at the time the said meeting took place. I do further certify that I am not a relative, counsel or attorney of any Member, or otherwise interested in the event of this action. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal of office at Niles, Ohio on this 1st day of July, 2015. DEBORAH I. LAVELLE, Notary Public My Commission expires April 9, 2017. Submitted by: Approved by: Cinthia Slusarczyk, clerk Kevin Campbell, President