Expect long waits at Collection Center

With the reopening of the Lorain County Collection Center and tire sites for Saturdays only, county officials say that residents looking to properly dispose of waste should expect exceptionally long wait times.

County administrator James Cordes said during a July 29 county commissioners meeting that the most recent drop-off time on July 26 brought in around 220 cars.

“Some folks have been reporting that they’ve been waiting an hour, hour 15 minutes in line at the height of the rush,” he said during the meeting. “They’re going to have wait quite a bit anyway, because we can only have one person unload and work on a car at a time.”

Cordes said that while long wait times may require residents to exercise patience, Lorain County is one of the rare counties that provides a collection center.

He said 80 percent of counties in the state of Ohio don’t have collection centers available for residents.

Having a limited amount of people working to unload cars one at a time is to reduce the risk of novel

coronavirus spread, with guidelines advising those who feel sick to stay home, pack waste into a truck bed or car trunk, remain inside the vehicle and face masks required, among others.

Cordes said the county is looking to expand hours of operation for the collection site to Wednesdays as well.

“We feel we have enough employees in the queue that we can add the additional hours on a Wednesday at the collection center,” he said.

Additionally, the county is working on restoring another collection center in

Lorain, anticipated to start servicing residents once a month.

Cordes said the center is expected to be operational by October of this year.

He said it has remained important that residents continue to dispose of waste properly at the collection site.

Starting Aug. 1, the collection center in Elyria and tire site in Grafton will be taking waste every Saturday.

The collection center at 540 S. Abbe Road in Elyria will be open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The tire site at 17109 Avon

Belden Road in Grafton will be open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m..

Cordes also spoke on the county’s anticipated energy conservation projects to start next year.

Lorain County will be seeking a contractor to take on particular projects related to saving energy, such as installing a new boiler at the Lorain County Courthouse and new LED lighting at the city’s parking garage.

“There’s some work we really need to do urgently,” Cordes said.