Recycling Transfer Station Discussion Draws Crowd During North Judson Council Meeting

Posted on November 8, 2016
Author Michael Gallenberger, WKVI

A proposed recycling transfer station in the North Judson Industrial Park drew several complaints from residents during a contentious North Judson Town Council meeting Monday. The planned by Metro Recycling facility would handle municipal solid waste, as well as construction debris like concrete and untreated wood.

Charlie Weaver with the Starke County Economic Development Foundation and Brian Moench, the engineer designing the facility, attended Monday’s meeting in an attempt to explain the project. But residents repeatedly voiced their concerns about truck traffic, noise, odors, and other issues.

The proposed site on Oakwood Street northeast of town would make it difficult for trucks to reach the site, according to some residents, with the only options being to travel on county roads or through North Judson itself. Moench said Metro Recycling has been working with Starke County Highway Superintendent Rik Ritzler on a solution. “We have proactively reached out to the county highway superintendent to have dedicated truck routes to move material in and out of this industrial park,” Moench said. “So at the discretion of the County Highway [Department] who has jurisdiction over these roadways, we are proactively working with them on defining a truck route, for the appropriate pavement sections, so on, and so forth, to get trucks in and out of this industrial park.” Residents questioned why the facility couldn’t be placed in a location with better highway infrastructure, such as Hamlet.

Concerns were also raised about the noise level of the portable concrete crushing equipment that would be used at the facility. Moench estimated it would be in the 70-to-90-decibel range. He also said the equipment would only be used on an as-needed basis, and that the company would be open to limiting concrete crushing to daytime hours.

But many residents were even more concerned about why they hadn’t heard about the project before the past couple weeks. Weaver said he had been in contact with county and local officials and that the project had been discussed in several public meetings. Many of those attending Monday’s meeting did not feel their concerns were being addressed adequately, and audience members interrupted speakers at several points during the meeting. Complicating matters is the fact that the site in the industrial park is located outside of the North Judson town limits and out of the town council’s jurisdiction.

San Pierre resident and former North Judson Town Attorney Cassandra Hine called for a meeting to be held at the county level to better address residents’ concerns. “We’ve had several comments made about meetings with the county highway superintendent,” she said. “We’ve had numerous comments about ‘This isn’t the town of North Judson; this is the county.’ So when is this all going to be addressed at the county level?”

However, County Commissioner Kathy Norem said that while the commissioners knew the Starke County Economic Development Foundation was in discussions with a recycling company, they didn’t know the details until the last few weeks. “We did not recruit them,” she said. “We did not negotiate anything with them.”

Norem said she has spoken with Ritzler about the truck routes. “What he told me this afternoon when I talked to him was that the truck routes that go through town would probably sustain the traffic,” she said. “But I’m fairly certain if there’s going to be continuing negotiations, they’re going to try to move that somewhere else, and then those roads are not going to sustain that kind of traffic. So that’s a problem that the county’s going to have to deal with if they continue to go forward.”

At the same time, Norem felt that it was up to the residents to convince Metro Recycling to locate elsewhere, not elected officials.