Fullmer’s property to be checked
Landscaper drops its rezoning request amid protests from residents.
JEFFERSON TWP. MONTGOMERY
— An inspector COUNTY with the Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County is expected to visit a Fullmer’s Landscaping, Inc. property on South Lutheran Church Road on Monday.
The visit stems from a Feb. 17 notice of violation issued to the company after a previous inspection by officials from the county’s health department, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the county sheriff’s office showed that solid waste debris had been placed on the ground. This is a violation of the county’s sanitary regulations and the state’s solid waste regulations.
Fullmer’s was given 30 days from the Feb. 17 notice to remove the material.
An inspector with the health department’s Environmental Health Division visited the property on March 23 to check on the progress of the removal and found dumpsters on site that contained most of the solid waste, according to Kent Domer-Shank, sanitarian supervisor in the department’s Bureau of Special Services.
“There is still some picking up to do. They have pushed everything into one spot and loaded it from there,” Domer-Shank said. He added that there were still some bits and pieces that needed to be handpicked.
“They need to finish the job. ... We also want to see the receipts for the disposal,” Domer-Shank said
The inspector visiting the site on Monday will check to see if Fullmer’s has completed the solid waste removal. “If they haven’t done anything, then I think we would issue a
second or final notice,” Domer-Shank said.
On Thursday, Kent Fullmer, president of Fullmer’s, announced during a Jefferson Twp. Zoning Commission public hearing that he was withdrawing his rezoning amendment request that, if approved, would have turned the South Lutheran Church Road property into a recycling area for landscaping waste.
Fullmer announced the decision after numerous people voiced their opposition to the proposal at the hour-long public hearing held in a room filled with mostly township residents at the township’s administration building
Three of the six commissioners were at the hearing.
Fullmer’s applied for a zoning amendment from the commission for the property at 160 S. Lutheran Church Road. The land is zoned for agricultural use. Company officials originally wanted the township to rezone it by adding a planned-development overlay so it can start a commercial landscaping business and related operations there.
Also, the owners wanted to move their current landscaping operations facility from 9547 W. Third Street to the four-acre South Lutheran Church Road site.
But now, those plans are off the table, according to Fullmer.
He said after meeting with neighbors of the South Lutheran Church Road property earlier this week and hearing the comments at Thursday night’s hearing, he has decided to withdraw the request.
“We had heard of some concerns that we had never heard of before and we thought, we better reevaluate, which we did,” Fullmer said after the hearing. “Then I came here tonight with a different plan to see about just moving our facility, but it sounds like that’s not going to be real conducive either. So, we want to be good neighbors in the community. If we can’t do that, we better find a community that we can take the business, that will be pleased with that.”
All 11 people who spoke at the hearing after Fullmer presented his new proposal to the commission, expressed opposition to both proposals.
Among them was Fred Iker, who lives on South Lutheran Church Road.
When asked his reaction to Fullmer withdrawing his request, Iker said, “It’s a timing thing. How quick are you really going to clean that up because it’s been four years of stall and delay tactics to keep that thing open, to keep dumping like what they have been doing. If they are in no big hurry and take a year or two to clean it up, that’s not going to help out too much.”