The City of Akron has reached a benefits agreement with waste company WM, who have approval to build a new waste transfer station on the city's east side. Measures include two financial obligations for WM: $100,000 per year invested in the city the first 10 years and $40,000 invested each year the facility is open.
The deal still needs council approval.
Advocates in East Akron who worked with the city on the agreement were pleased with the effort overall, but some are urging council to continue negotiating.
Council approved the new waste transfer station at East Archwood Avenue in 2024 to replace the current facility on Fountain Street. It will serve as a handoff point for local waste before it's transferred to larger trucks to be transported outside of the city.
The development agreement introduced to council's Public Service, Public Utilities, & Green Committee Monday also requires WM to host quarterly community meetings, arrange annual tire and litter cleanup days in the Middlebury and East Akron neighborhoods, and prioritize local hiring at its new facility on East Archwood Avenue.
Marc Tibbs is pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church and a principal of Akron Community Action Network. Though most of the development agreement presented Monday is satisfactory, Tibbs said, WM's proposed financial commitment is lacking.
"If I were to list priorities, I would say the community investment fund would be one, at a rate and a duration that is acceptable," he said. "I would also say, of course, that the environmental safeguards around the operation would be next, and then, maybe not necessarily in that order, some sort of remediation for the Fountain Street people."
Residents on Fountain Street, however, have a different stance.
Nonprofit organization Akron Families Against City Transfer Stations (FACTS) represents residents on Fountain Street, some of whom have lived with the effects of the current WM transfer station for 30 years.
"We are still affected 24/7 by the stench, by the noise, by so many different things 鈥� swirling trash," FACTS member and Middlebury resident Margaret Heath said. "We can't enjoy the basic things in life [like] sitting out on your porch and having a cup of coffee."
Akron FACTS members voted unanimously to cosign the proposed development plan Wednesday, regardless of calls for continued negotiation.
"No amount of money can give us back what we've lost over the years," Akron FACTS member Melinda Mace said. "You can't cook out, you can't hang clothes out. It's just, our lives have changed and we'll not get that back. And no amount money can get that for us."
Some council members back remaining concerns
The dollar amount WM committed to invest through the draft plan isn't satisfactory to Ward 5 Councilman Johnnie Hannah.
The more than $1 million investment over 10 years can't outweigh the harm done in his ward over the last 30 years, he said.
"They could never give the city or the FACTS residents enough money to compensate for the injustices that has happened in their neighborhoods," Hannah said. "They were not able to sit on the porch in the summer months because of the strong odor that was coming from that facility. They were not able to let their children play in certain areas on [Bettie Street] because they were fearful (of) rodents, the big raccoons and possums."
The city should try to get WM to commit to investing $100,000 for 15 years, Hannah said. Though Council member-at-large Eric Garrett agrees with Hannah's sentiment, he wants an even longer commitment from WM.
"My concern, or my push for my constituents throughout the community, is if we're in business for 25 years, perhaps I would have hoped that we would have negotiated ($100,000 per year) over 25 years as opposed to just 10 years," Garrett said.
Garrett also raised concerns about the tax increment financing (TIF) model proposed in the development agreement that would invest additional dollars from WM into infrastructure improvements citywide.
The proposed agreement isn't earmarked for neighborhoods on Akron's east side specifically, and Garrett said that's a sticking point.
鈥淚 want to make sure that not only that money stays in the Middlebury area and the Joy Park area, but when the TIF funds come in, it's not something that goes out citywide," Garrett said. "It stays focused in on the areas that was actually harmed.鈥�
The city's work on the development agreement is commendable, Garrett said, and he's hopeful it will pass. But he added clarity on the use of TIF dollars should be provided before the draft agreement is presented before the committee next week.
Some environmental concerns remain
The development agreement outlines reporting requirements for WM that exceed requirements outlined by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, including:
- Annual reporting on mitigation practices for fugitive dust and particulate matter
- The removal of on the Fountain Street property, and
- Continuous baiting of pests and animals on the Archwood Site.
However, independent air quality monitoring around the Archwood site is what Akron Community Action Network hoped for, in part due to a lack of trust in WM, Tibbs said.
"We know that those air quality monitors are above and beyond the OEPA requirements," he said. "But since WM has not always been a good corporate neighbor ... we'd just like to see a few more safeguards with regard to the air quality monitoring."
Mace with Akron FACTS said the environmental obligations outlined in the draft agreement are encouraging, especially in comparison to what they've delt with on Fountain Street.
"Those people are lucky that they're getting money," Mace said. "They're going to have a modern, eco-friendly tech building, and what we're dealing with, it's just a large metal shed. It's not made to be a garbage transfer station."
For Akron CAN, the goal is to encourage council to send the city back to the negotiating table with WM, to get a larger financial commitment and more stringent environmental protection measures.
"I think the city staff did a great job," Tibbs said. "They did the best that they could. I just think they should have asked for more. If Waste Management can just make a couple of little tweaks, a few concessions, we're willing to support it."
But Akron FACTS members remain fully on board, Mace said.
The City of Akron will present the draft development agreement to the Public Service, Public Utilities, & Green Committee Monday. If approved by the committee, it will move forward for a vote Monday night.
