A battle is brewing over how and where Harford County will handle much of its trash disposal in the future, one that likely will pit community against community and politician against politician.
Harford County Councilman Dion Guthrie made it clear during Wednesday's Edgewood Community Council meeting that residents of Edgewood are "very unhappy" with the county's plan to locate a trash transfer station off Route 7 in nearby Joppa.
Guthrie, who represents Edgewood and Joppa, said a bill that would put the transfer station at 814 Philadelphia Road, formerly Coleman Plecker's World of Golf, was introduced at Tuesday's county council meeting. The site is adjacent to the Route 152 interchange with I-95.
He said that during the meeting he "got into a big argument with [County Council President] Billy Boniface and [Councilwoman] Mary Ann [Lisanti]" about how the bill that is "site specific" shouldn't have been introduced. Guthrie added that the other council members are "pushing hard to put that facility there," since it isn't within their districts.
Traffic from trash trucks going to and from the station, Guthrie said, would double the volume of trash vehicles on local roads, a concern residents have been vocal about in previous Edgewood Community Council meetings, as well as in Joppa Community Council Meetings.
The county administration purchased the Plecker property earlier this year as a hedge against the likelihood the nearby incinerator at the end of Route 152 in Magnolia, on Aberdeen Proving Ground property, may not be available as a trash disposal option in the not too distant future. The incinerator, which is owned by the county and sells steam to the Army, is nearing the end of its life, and for more than a year the Army has refused to commit to an earlier plan by the county to upgrade and expand the facility, saying it wants to explore other options with private developers.
Guthrie said he wanted a "simple bill" that wouldn't allow a transfer station within 500 feet of a residential property – a restriction that would scuttle use of the Plecker property. The bill that was introduced Tuesday, however, was eight pages long, he said, a far cry from "simple."
The transfer station legislation, Bill 11-62, will have a public hearing Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. Guthrie urged people to "come testify against that bill."
Livability Code update
Guthrie also told the community council and the dozen people in attendance lawyers are drafting a final bill to update Harford County's Livability Code and it should be ready by next week. Guthrie has been working with a task force he asked the council to establish to review the code and make changes to it.
The updated code would hold landlords accountable when they neglect their rental properties, he said.
The councilman anticipates there will be people, in particular landlords, who will "complain" about the code and its $20 registration fee every two years, but he said a tougher code is a necessary to protect residents.
Edgewood Community Council Chairman Jansen Robinson agreed, saying more people need to be invested in the upkeep of their homes to promote homeownership in the area.
Guthrie said earlier this year that the Edgewood area has been particularly hard-hit by rampant real estate speculation amid falling prices for a generation of condo units and town houses built in the 1970s and 1980s. Many of these, he said, have become rentals that are not being well maintained.