By AMANDA SMITH-TEUTSCH
Tribune Chronicle
HUBBARD - About 200 people showed up for a Trumbull County Health Board meeting Wednesday at the Hubbard High School auditorium, but they did not hear about the status of an application for a proposed landfill on nearby township land.
Instead, the county board conducted its regular business, declaring homes unfit for human habitation, approving septic systems and setting hearings for code violations.
The application for a construction and demolition debris landfill already was returned to Trans Rail America by county health commissioner Dr. James Enyeart, and the board did not discuss the matter Wednesday. Enyeart said he returned the application because it was not complete, noting some of the information needed included geology and water-flow studies.
Rick Hernandez of Hubbard Environmental and Land Preservation told a group of about 50 people staying afterward for a HELP meeting, that while his group knew the application had been returned, he still believed it was important to gather people together.
''If we can fill this auditorium with 200, 300, 400 people, it will catch the interest of the media,'' Hernandez said. ''We are just a small group. But we have a message and we are a voice. Others have done it. We can too.''
Because the application was returned, it will be at least another three months before the landfill could be built, Hernandez said. ''And we'll take it,'' he said.
Health board chairman pro tempore Robert Biery referred all questions on the landfill to the commissioner. ''We have no information on that,'' he said
Michael A. Cyphert of the Walter and Haverfield law firm in Cleveland, which represents Trans Rail America, has said the company plans to refile the application with all the needed information.
In the meantime, Hernandez said the HELP group, which has raised nearly $13,000 to pay environmental lawyers and engineers, plans to lobby the state legislature to change laws governing construction and demolition debris landfills.
''There are no regulations,'' Hernandez said. ''There are no laws about who handles cleanup.''
He said the group is also trying to expand into neighboring areas, such as Liberty and Brookfield, to recruit more supporters.