Hello!
The City of Akron is close to completing its FIRST EVER Community Benefit Package.
No matter what, that is a HUGE WIN! The Big Love Network and Akron CAN are grateful to the City of Akron and WM that they have even gone through this process. However we have some concerns…
JUST WITHIN ONE YEAR, EAST AKRON RESIDENTS WILL ONLY GET $100,000 TO WM’S MINIMAL $3.9 MILLION FROM THIS CONTRACT. THE COMMUNITY BENEFITS MONEY IS FOR ONLY 10 YEARS WHILE THE SERVICE CONTRACT IS FOR 25 YEARS.
ANY WM VIOLATION WOULD NOT RESULT IN ADDITIONAL FUNDS BEING ADDED TO THE BENEFITS PACKAGE, BUT A CITY-WIDE RATE REDUCTION THAT CONTINUES THE HISTORIC TREND OF THE CITY PROFITTING OFF OF EAST AKRON SUFFERING!
There are only 5 full time, permanent jobs are coming from the new facility, and these are dedicated to “Summit County” residents. Other temporary construction jobs are designated by Zip Codes 44304, 44305, and 44306. This perpetuates the practice of potentially hiring suburban white people at the expense of the health and dignity of a low income, predominately black community.
After the Community Benefits money dries up, so does WM’s obligation to support youth programming within 10 years. This has always been an area of major consideration for East Akron residents.
When a WM violation occurs, the City pledges to send out an inspector within 3 days. This would allow WM time to cover up the violation before an inspector can assess what happened. Inspections should be handled immediately once reported.
Also, once a violation is cited, WM gets 3 months to address it. This only exposes residents to potential harm for a longer period of time. A recent violation at the existing site took weeks for WM to remediate, meanwhile residents were exposed to debris particulate matter.
WM is not being required to install continuos air monitoring to detect particulate matter or volatile organic compounds. A smell suppressor system alone does not protect residents from potential toxic chemicals coming from the facility.
No discovery, quarterly third party inspections are included in this deal. The planned annual Ohio EPA inspections is too easy for the facility to cover up any leakages or storing of toxic waste. Also, the recent weakening of EPA regulations require local officials to be more rigorous.
WM is required to attend annual community meetings and City Council meetings for a period of only 5 years. Once the faclity is no longer “state-of-the-art,” neighbors will have difficulty keeping lines of communication open around concerns about a deteriorating facility.
Call To Action!
Canvass with Us!
Sign the letter campaign to tell Akron City Council how we feel!
SHOW UP for the Emergency Community meeting on Sunday!
Only East Akron residents and conveners will have the floor.
Come to show support and learn more.
Come to the Public Utilities Committee Monday at 2pm and at 6:30 for Public Comment.
Thank you!
Beth Vild
COO/Director of Programming
The Big Love Network
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