Crossridge Landfill Owner Clashes With Public at Meeting Over Plans
Trending
WINTERSVILLE -- Crossridge Landfill owner Joe Scugoza made his case Monday for selling the property, telling a crowd of more than 120 area residents that a new owner could address environmental issues he doesn't have the money to fix himself.
Scugoza said his prospective buyer, Greenway Reclamation of Garden City, N.Y., would "purchase the facility, remediate any environmental problem and move forward." If the deal goes through, Greenway has proposed making the front of the property a construction and demolition debris landfill, with the solid waste landfill going into the rear of the property.
"This is quick, this is the best way we can resolve the issues," Scugoza told the group, adding, "It's a good, honest plan that saves the environment and creates jobs."
The meeting, an informational session sponsored by Scugoza, was designed to erase misconceptions he insists are tainting public opinion, including the impact an active landfill would have on property values.
Scugoza and motivational speaker Shari Jo Watkins said properties abutting landfills in other communities, like Washington and Robinson, Pa., as well as Weirton, have continued to increase in value.
"Because they're handled and managed appropriately and effectively, it has not affected the ability for commerce to continue on and grow," Watkins said, telling them that having a landfill in those communities "isn't stopping people from going to them and spending money."
Crossridge, idled more than 30 years ago, was never properly closed. Without remediation, Watkins said it's only a matter of time before they start seeing uncontrolled fires, extreme erosion that would allow the stench to begin leaching contamination, allowing methane and other gases to become airborne, as well as rodents, sinkholes, wildlife death, vegetation destruction and a definite decrease in property values.
Scugoza said the deal would create 100 good paying jobs, plus several dozen indirect employment opportunities, and generate $300,000 annually in host community fees.
"These jobs are guaranteed to be recession proof," Watkins said. "Businesses close down, there’s still garbage, there's still going to be solid waste. It's recession proof."
She said the JB Green Team would get about $2 million more a year if the landfill were to reopen.
"When the landfill originally closed, the township lost a great deal of money and that revenue was never replaced," she added. "If you're able to do more for roads, if you're able to do more for the community, will that not attract new business?"
Watkins also told the group the "landfill cannot interfere with the airport," prompting the Airport Authority's Geary Bates to yell out, "You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what you're talking about."
Airport officials and county leaders have voiced concern that a landfill would attract birds, which presents a safety issue for planes taking off and landing.
"We weren't that concerned until we got jets out there," Bates said. "Now, it's changed. One (bad outcome) and it's all over for us."
Others questioned why Scugoza doesn't just correct the problems himself.
But Scugoza said the site problems have been allowed to fester because the family doesn't have the many millions that will be needed to correct them. "That's why we need new owners."
"It's not possible for the landfill to reopen under current ownership," he added. "The only option is to find someone ... with the financial resources and knowledge to do it appropriately. If we leave it as it is, it will cause more devastation. (If you're worried) about the landfill's proximity to your home and what could be around it, that's way worse than birds."
Scugoza said Greenway had invested more than $400,000 into the community "only to be run out of town."
He also was critical of community leaders "who made a big deal" about the landfill without benefit of all the ramifications either way.