East Akron residents are fortunate that the well-respected East Akron Neighborhood Development Corp. has proposed an innovative plan to redevelop the site of the former Mason Elementary School. To meet a growing need, the nonprofit is planning a 28-unit complex to serve grandparents who are raising their grandchildren, the first such project in the city. The possible investment of nearly $6 million would help to revitalize a struggling neighborhood.
The vacant site, between Gage and Corley streets west of Beaver Street, is a promising location in several respects. It is near the new Mason Community Learning Center, offering convenience for children attending school. It is also within the neighborhood development corporation’s service area, providing access to social services, and close to its Middlebury Plaza project, which offers a grocery store and medical services.
While the housing project would be a positive influence, meetings with neighborhood residents about the development have raised — again — concerns about another, far less desirable, aspect of the neighborhood. It is the Waste Management garbage transfer station on Fountain Street, which for years has generated complaints about rats, odors and runoff.
Discussions about the housing project now offer an avenue for the city, the neighborhood development corporation and local residents to pursue a solution, at last, to the problems created by the transfer station. Moving the station would improve the quality of life for the entire neighborhood, including the housing complex for grandparents.
The key is finding a new location for Waste Management, something promised to residents as part of a settlement in 2002 between Waste Management and the city. At that point, local residents already had endured a decade of smells and vermin. The site, originally owned by Hyman Budoff, had handled only paper and cardboard. When it was sold, Waste Management started accepting garbage, and that led to the legal fight.
The difficult part of implementing the settlement has been the pledge from the city to find an alternative location. The original timeline for action, three years, passed without progress, Don Plusquellic, then mayor, pointing to the need to find a site with freeway access and far enough removed from businesses or a residential development.
One possible alternative that deserves the city’s attention now is an expansion of the Waste Management Greenstar Recycling facility on Exeter Road, near Akron Fulton International Airport. The site also could function as a transfer station.
The new administration of Mayor Dan Horrigan must not allow neighborhood concerns over the Fountain Street transfer station to linger any longer.
That isn’t to suggest the worthy housing project proposed by the East Akron Neighborhood Development Corp. should be held up until the transfer station can be relocated. Still, the proposal does serve as a strong reminder of how much the residents of Bettie Street and surrounding areas have had to put up with for such an unreasonable amount of time.
For their sake, and the sake of the grandparents and grandchildren who might come, the Fountain Street transfer station must be moved.