Officials address odor complaints

Area residents continue to complain about foul odors that have plagued areas in Painesville Township for several years and officials are stepping up to find solutions for this persisting issue.

At a recent Painesville Township trustees meeting, Geri Slater questioned if any progress is being made on controlling the odors coming from the Lake County Solid Waste Facility (landfill) at 2039 Blase Nemeth Road.

“I live near Bacon Road and sometimes it is really bad,” he said.

Trustee Chuck Hillier, who recently met with Lake County Commissioner Jerry Cirino, said he is taking action.

In fact, Cirino said they hosted a community meeting about a month ago with nearly 80 people in attendance to discuss the issue. And he was able to hear firsthand how these odors impact residents.

Not too far from the landfill is a company that makes animal feed and a business that makes plastics, so no one is exactly sure where the odors are coming from, Cirino said.

About five years ago, one of those companies, the Hardy Animal Nutrition plant at 679 Hardy Road, instituted a plan to lessen the unpleasant smell, according to a 2013 interview.

However, less than a year

later residents were complaining again about the smell from the plant and complaints have been intermittent ever since.

Cirino decided to look into hiring professional consultants to conduct a survey to see if anything can be done to decrease the odors that are coming from the landfill, since it is operated by the county.

Since it is a landfill, Cirino forewarns the public that the odor may not be completely eliminated, but hopefully it would be reduced.

“It is our job as elected officials to respond to residents, work with the community in solving problems and jump onboard to find a solution,” he said.

The trustees are grateful for Cirino’s support.

“We’re still a few months out from anything concrete happening at the earliest, so we will see how it goes,” Hillier said.

In the meantime, Hillier continues to encourage residents to call the odor complaints and formal reporting line at 440-350-2543 or email bmechenb@lcghd.org.

“I can’t stress enough how important it is that we, as a community take the time to call/email the Lake County General Health District each and every time we smell an odor in our neighborhoods and provide them the date, time, location and description of the odor encountered,” he said in a Facebook post. “The documented calls/emails become part of the official record for all future communications and/or litigation with said violators.”

There are other sources of odors from private businesses and in one case a lawsuit has been filed and the records from the Health District have surely been subpoenaed and in the other case they are used when working with the businesses, he said.

“In fact, the latest efforts by Lake County Commissioner Jerry Cirino related to the landfill are hinged in large part to a relentless barrage of emails/calls from new residents in Lake Erie Shores and now that we have the attention of someone who is in position to force change (Lake County Commissioner Jerry Cirino), we must continue and not become complacent,” Hillier said.