Official: Stop using Berks as trash can

Before Mark C. Scott bids farewell to the Berks County Board of Commissioners at the end of the month, the Douglass (Berks) Township Republican has a few things he wants to say to those who will remain.

And first on that list is a warning that they should continue his fight against landfills.

Scott, who lost the race to keep his seat after 24 years in the post, took the opportunity at a recent meeting to issue a challenge to his colleagues that they work to rid the county of its unofficial title as the landfill capital of Pennsylvania.

“I’m looking forward to the day when people from neighboring counties no longer use Berks County as a trash can,” he said. “But we won’t see that day if future boards of commissioners get weak-kneed. And I’m concerned about that.”

Berks is home to four landfills, putting it among the counties with the highest concentration of landfills in Pennsylvania — the largest importer of trash in America. There’s the Conestoga Landfill in New Morgan, Rolling Hills Landfill in Earl Township, Western Berks Landfill in Cumru Township and Pioneer Crossing Landfill in Exeter Township.

Scott said the county’s proximity to metropolitan areas and a weak political will to oppose landfills are among the reasons for its distinc

tion as the landfill capital of Pennsylvania. He explained that rural communities are saddled with landfills because they don’t have the financial clout to take on the industry.

Scott said one of the four landfills in Berks would be more than sufficient to handle the waste generated by county residents.

“I confess that landfill are needed to dispose of our waste, but these facilities offer more than 10 times the capacity that we actually need in Berks,” he said.

The best chance the community has at closing these landfills and keeping future landfills out, Scott said, is through comprehensive zoning ordinances. But the county doesn’t have control over local zoning.

“We are at the mercy of the municipalities to work together on this,” he said. “Zoning is one of the most valuable tools to use in containing undesirable land uses. And that is something we must encourage.”

So, he is suggesting the county planning commission include language in the Berks County Comprehensive Plan 2030 that will set that as one of its priorities.

“This is an opportunity to set forth in our statement of community objectives the desire — and I think most people would agree — that we should have a plan to amortize the impact and the presence of solid waste facilities in Berks County,” he said. “Those who live in the communities where these landfills are located are looking to the county commissioners to be strong in fighting for these closures.”

Also at the meeting: The board approved hiring attorney Michael Hollinger as a law clerk in the court administration office in a resolution that stressed the board has no control over the appointment, citing a section of the county code that grants courts the right to hire, fire and supervise its employees.

The commissioners had been set to approve the resolution in September stating their strong opposition to hiring a county court employee who had faced inappropriate conduct claims in the past. But a disagreement over the language of the resolution delayed the vote.

The original resolution stated:

“The county has notified the courts that the county does not support this hiring and objects to the hiring of this individual. It is the county’s opinion that hiring this individual creates a potential future liability. The courts have chosen to hire this individual despite the concerns raised by the county.”

That language was missing from the resolution approved Thursday.

The board approved a resolution authorizing the advertisement of a proposed ordinance that would give commissioners the ability to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with Lehigh County to house prisoners at the Lehigh County Jail should the need arise.

The commissioners entered into a similar agreement last month with Centre County.

Commissioner Kevin S. Barnhardt said that the arrangements will ensure there is a contingency plan in place should they run out of space at the Berks County Prison and stressed there are no immediate plans to send inmates to Lehigh or Centre counties.