The citizen group CARE, (Crawford Area Residents for the Environment), that attended the Greenwood Township Supervisor meeting a week prior, also approached the Sadsbury Township Supervisors during their recent monthly meeting.

The purpose of this citizen group is to protest the possible placement of a tires-to-energy plant in Greenwood Township.

The spokesperson for the organization was challenged, however, when Township Solicitor R. Charles Thomas asked if she was a resident of Sadsbury. When she replied that she was not, and that she lived in Meadville, R. Charles stated that, according to the open records statute, Sadsbury did not have to give voice to the group.

He said the decision could be left up to the board, but indicated that the statute was quite clear on the matter. As this banter was unfolding, a resident of Greenwood was handing out some brochures called, “Tire Incineration for Energy, How Would it Effect Our Community?”

R. Charles also told her that Sadsbury had no control over what happened in Greenwood and indicated that it wouldn't be appropriate for this board to interfere with the goings on in the other township.

She said that she understood that the township affairs were separate. She wanted to impart information about the pollutants that might be released by the proposed plant. According to the Meadville resident, any citizens within a 40 mile radius could be adversely affected by the airborne particles.

She began to give some stats about how the pollution would not necessarily be visible to the naked eye because of the minuscule nature of the particles.

Thomas basically quizzed her as to why she would be concerned with the goings on at Greenwood since she was a resident of Meadville.

She explained that she and her family had planned to purchase a house in Union Township in an area near the marsh that abutted Greenwood Township. They decided against it due to the proposed tires-to-energy plant.

She said she did not want to subject her family to various kinds of contaminates that might be associated with the plant, including very minute particles containing carcinogenic substances, metals and other unpleasant elements.

She said that even though the footprint of the plant would be in Greenwood, the surrounding areas could be in danger of the above-mentioned pollutants.

R. Charles spoke up and asked her how she knew about this because there had never been a plant like this constructed anywhere in the United States and maybe even the world.

“How do you know all this?” he asked. She answered, “Well, we're basing it on the application that they put into DEP for the Erie site.”

R. Charles responded, post-haste, and asked how she knew it was going to pollute the air and then asked if this was not the jurisdiction of the DEP.

She said that DEP only monitored a few of the twenty plus chemicals and, “just because DEP says it's OK, doesn't mean it's OK...” She added that she could come up with many examples of how DEP doesn't thoroughly carry out the measurements.

Again, she stated that her purpose for being in attendance was to inform them because she thought some of the residents of the Conneaut Lake area might want to know.

She then mentioned how the Geneva watershed was connected with Conneaut Lake and this might be a concern for some residents.

Again, the spokesperson said that the DEP didn't have the ability to measure particles that were very small, like the ones she claimed would fill the air.

R. Charles asked what Greenwood supervisors had to say about it and she claimed that they didn't seem to want to listen to anyone.

At that point, Supervisor Roy Whaley interjected and said he had a couple of statements to make. The first of which was that of the weather patterns and how the flow pretty much goes south and east. “Which means, it's not in our area,” he mentioned.

He continued, “My second question would be, if you're so worried about molecules from a tire plant and you're saying that DEP and EPA doesn't monitor enough of the particulates or gases, then what are you breathing now that you don't know about, that's coming from Youngstown or Cleveland, that's coming our way?”

He moved to the water aquifers and said they flowed in the same direction as the above-mentioned weather pattern and any contaminates would also move away from Sadsbury due to this.

She said she understood and then Whaley said he agreed with R. Charles about this townships' involvement. He told her that Greenwood didn't have an application in front of them yet pertaining to the plant so that they could, “investigate, evaluate or request additional information that may or may not be provided as far as part of the process.”

When she mentioned the word ordinance, Whaley asked, “what ordinance—to say no?” She answered that the ordinance was to request a more in depth environmental impact study or, “the business going in here would have to provide us with more information in regards to the environmental welfare of the people...”

Whaley explained to her that her description was not that of an ordinance but was more of a request for additional information. He then defined an ordinance as something that would have limits and restrictions and would become law.

R. Charles said he understood where she was coming from but there wasn't a representative from “the other side” in attendance in terms of the alleged pollutants, etc.

She imparted that all of the chemical worries, etc., came from the application from the Erie site. “I'm not trying to persuade you...-it's more or less information for the community to have...,” she said.

Whaley made it clear that he in no way wanted to “preempt” the process and come between themselves and another municipality. He pointed out too that they did not want to alarm citizens and until the “process is formalized and is being participated in by the public, specifically Greenwood Township, I don't think we should...get involved directly.”

She said that Greenwood was participating currently and Whaley said it was difficult for any supervisors to get involved until an official application arrived, “on the table.”

The discussion came to an end with Whaley thanking her for the information. He added that they would accept and review future literature but, “we'd kinda like to let Greenwood Township do their thing.”

The key issue put forth by Whaley was that the application process was key and more would be discovered at that time.

Supervisor Kevin VanHonk said they were more than welcome to leave some brochures at the township building for any interested party to take.

Lee Dennis, member of the Conneaut Lake Area Historical Society, was in attendance as well and approached the board with a request that they give $500 annually for the upkeep of Barber Cemetery.

Dennis has been very actively involved in raising money for the undertaking for years and has done so mainly through the sale of candy bars. He also said that Nancy Coleman had been taking excellent care of the cemetery.

The reason why he needed to ask for the money was because he is in poor health and will not be able to keep up with the process of maintenance.

The cemetery is located in an area off First Street near the sewage plant in the Borough of Conneaut Lake. Years ago, the Historical Society had reclaimed the cemetery and were granted the right of way by Conneaut Lake Borough Council in order to build a bridge for accessing the region.

The graveyard has gone from an area of very thick brush, poison ivy, downed trees, broken headstones. and general disarray, to a pristine resting place due to the efforts of many volunteers.

Whaley said they have to be careful in terms of taxpayer money and asked if Dennis might supply a list of board members. Dennis explained that many had stepped down but Coleman was an active participant to date.

According to Dennis, the township had given $500 twice in the past.

The bottom line is Township Secretary Rose Mumau is going to go back in the records to ascertain when this money was given and supervisors are going to investigate further as well.

R. Charles is also going to look at the statute in order to find out what the next move might be.

Some things needed to be clarified such as for what the monies would be used, for instance. A written request was also mentioned in order to have a paper trail.

Moving along, a resident who lives across from the township ball fields thanked supervisors for allowing him to look for firewood on the property. In doing so, he helps to keep the area looking nice so it's a win-win.

He approached supervisors with a request to take two dead trees down which are located along the wood line.

He said he would make sure to do a thorough clean up afterwards including tamping in any dents that might occur in the process.

- To be continued next issue -