HOWELL – A unified group of municipal officials and residents have voiced their objections to a solid waste transfer station a private company wants to build and operate on Randolph Road in Howell.
The Monmouth County Solid Waste Advisory Council (SWAC) held a public hearing on the plan at the Howell municipal building on Jan. 25.
The proposed facility on Randolph Road would be operated by Resource Engineering and would include a 36,000-square-foot main building, an 8,729-square-foot maintenance garage, a scale house and an office building.
Resource Engineering is proposing to accept 1,500 tons per day of bulky cleanup debris and bulky construction debris for sorting, removal of recyclable materials and subsequent transfer to an out-of-state facility for final disposal. The facility would be able to recycle copper, aluminum, steel, gypsum, timber, plastic and glass. The applicant’s goal is to recycle 70 percent of materials on site, according to the application.
The applicant has indicated it would improve the intersection of Route 547 (Lakewood-Farmingdale Road) and Randolph Road. A traffic signal would be installed at the intersection.
The applicant has said the benefits to Howell include more than 40 new jobs. The applicant has said that “substantial truck mileage currently traversing the township will be reduced” despite the hundreds of truck deliveries that would be expected at the location each day.
Attorney Chris Beekman represented SWAC and said the purpose of the hearing was to advise the public about general information related to the application. He said the applicant initially applied to SWAC in August 2015. From that point until 2017, the applicant had “ongoing coordination with SWAC and Howell officials.”
The applicant stated that a letter was received from Howell in May 2017 citing support of the project and stating that the township had no objection.
Beekman said SWAC placed the matter on its agenda for a vote on May 18, 2017. He said the project was unanimously approved to be sent to the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders for their review and approval.
“Prior to the freeholders’ (July 27) meeting to review the planned amendment (to the county’s solid waste plan), the county received letters from town officials that conflicted with the original position of the township. Based on the conflict, the county removed the matter from the freeholders agenda so that the conflicting letters could be addressed and the official position of the township clarified,” Beekman read from a memorandum.
Howell officials subsequently submitted a letter voicing opposition to the planned amendment to the county’s solid waste plan and to the solid waste transfer station.
The Jan. 25 meeting was held to allow the public to learn more about the application.
“This is not an opportunity to try to dig into the presentation or the application to try and prove something wrong. The purpose of the presentation was to give the public a general idea of what was pending the freeholders’ approval on the application,” Beekman said.
Beekman said there was an opportunity in May 2017 to cross examine witnesses the applicant presented.
Attorney Paul H. Schneider represented Arnold Steel, which owns properties on Randolph Road. Schneider asked Beekman about an Aug. 7, 2017, letter from the clerk of the Board of Freeholders which states that the county was sending the company’s application back to SWAC for “reconsideration.”
“I think I heard you say this evening that (SWAC) is not reconsidering anything,” Schneider said.
“We were given our orders and we are here tonight abiding by those orders,” Beekman said.
He said SWAC’s orders for Jan. 25 were to allow members of the public to comment on the record so the freeholders will be able to review what was said.
Mayor Theresa Berger was away, but was represented by her son, Alec Berger. He read from a statement which expressed the mayor’s “complete disapproval” of the solid waste transfer station application.
Howell Deputy Mayor Robert Nicastro said the entire Township Council vigorously opposes the facility’s placement in Howell.
“We respectfully request that (SWAC) reject this application and recommend to the freeholders that the proposed solid waste transfer facility not be (placed) in the county’s solid waste master plan,” Nicastro said.
Nicastro said residents have expressed concern about the solid waste transfer station’s possible impact on local traffic, as well as the possibility of odors, excessive noise, air pollution, dust, environmental impact, health hazards, the business’s proximity to homes, vehicle access to the site, traffic movement offsite, a negative impact on property values, rodents and its location near the Metedeconk River, which flows into the Barnegat Bay and is a primary source of drinking water.
“I want to emphasize that we do not believe this is just a case of ‘Not In My Backyard’ syndrome. Many residents who spoke at our (Jan. 23 council meeting) are long-time residents. These residents have seen their share of problems in this section of town and know the lay of the land they call home,” Nicastro said.
Howell Councilman Bob Walsh said he believes the township has received misinformation in regard to the application and he said he has apologized to residents for what has occurred. Walsh said he is “totally against this project and always was.”
“There is not one person in Howell who thinks this is good for Howell, not one,” he said, before asking the members of SWAC to “help us.”
Walsh said there would be hundreds of truck trips in and out of the solid waste transfer station each day and “right down the street from this location on (Route 547), we have 800 to 1,000 young kids, some of them young drivers, playing on soccer fields, softball fields and lacrosse fields from the early spring to late fall and there will be all that extra truck traffic that you say will be directed on that road.”
“You are public servants, you serve the residents of Monmouth County and the people of Howell. Can you tell me what we can do to help our residents? I need some truth because I am still not being told the truth to this day.
“I was never in agreement with anything, you do not see my name attached to anything in agreement with this project. When this was brought to me 18 months or two years ago, I used locker room talk, and I am very good at it, and I said I was adamantly against this project and that there would be no dump in Howell if there was anything I could do about it,” Walsh said.
Beekman said he could not answer any questions that had been posed by the evening’s speakers. He said the issue of the proposed solid waste transfer station may be on the agenda for the freeholders’ meeting on Feb. 22.
