Wellington backs L3 Harris radio system

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Wellington Village Council recently passed a unanimous resolution calling for the Lorain County Board of Commissioners to reinstate a contract with Cleveland Communications Inc. for the L3 Harris emergency radio system.

The 6-0 vote on the four-page resolution took place Feb. 20, Mayor Hans Schneider wrote in a Facebook post.

“This is a public safety issue that has been taken over by politicians putting the worst of politics before health and the safety of the citizens they serve,” he wrote. “The process that led to the decision to purchase the L3 Harris system was open, thoughtful, researched and honest.”

The decision to go with CCI and the L3 Harris radio system was made Dec. 21 by Commissioners Michelle Hung and Matt Lundy. They voted 2-0 to enter into a contract with

Ross Incineration gets 40 tons of East Palestine debris

Some 40 tons of debris and materials containing trace amounts of vinyl chloride are to be burned to ash by Ross Incineration Services on Giles Road in Eaton Township, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday.

The Ohio EPA said that number was out of approximately 700 tons of solid waste removed from the site where a Norfolk Southern train derailed while carrying hazardous chemicals through East Palestine on Feb. 3.

Approximately 1.8 million gallons of liquid wastewater also is being disposed of at facilities in Sandusky County and in Michigan and Texas, the Ohio EPA said.

Trace amounts of vinyl chloride, a carcinogenic gas used in the manufacturing of plastics such as PVC pipe, are believed to be in the debris that Ross Incineration Services received, according to the Ohio EPA.

Andy Sedlak, chief spokesperson for Ross Environmental Services, said March 1 the amount of chemicals expected in the materials is “very small trace amounts” — in parts per million, he said.

All materials arriving at the company’s incinerator are subject to testing and verification before they are burned, Sedlak said.

Sedlak said the company, which has headquarters in Elyria and has been in business since 1949, has been fielding many questions since it was named late Feb. 27 as one of the recipients of the East Palestine debris.

CCI and spend nearly $8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to provide the radios and associated technology to Lorain County sheriff’s deputies and Lorain County fire departments not already on the system.

Commissioner David Moore was not present at that meeting. On Jan. 9, he and newly elected Commissioner Jeff Riddell voted 2-1 over Hung’s objection to rescind the contract, saying the bidding process won by CCI and its L3 Harris radios was improper.

Moore and Riddell have said they are restarting the bid process so it is fair to all parties. Riddell, who replaced Lundy at the beginning of the year, said it took the county two years to get through the bid process won by CCI, and asked for “a few months to do it right for the taxpayers.”

Following that vote, Parma-based CCI sued the county and the Lorain County Deputies Associa- tion filed a grievance with Lorain County Sheriff Phil Stammitti over health and safety concerns.

The lawsuit is pending in Lorain County Common Pleas Court before visiting Judge Thomas Pokorny, a retired Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judge. The deputies’ grievance has not yet gone to arbitration, LCDA President Adam Shaw said.

Moore said Thursday that he is “committed to fixing the radio infrastructure in Lorain County.”

“We have a team working on this issue as we speak,” he wrote in a text message. Riddell said Thursday he had not heard the news from Wellington, nor had he read the resolution, so he wasn’t able to comment on it.

Because CCI has sued the county, “I can’t comment on what we would or wouldn’t do in response,” he said.

Riddell said critics of the vote to rescind the contract “lack an understanding of