Ohio Citizen Action

Carl Gaglione, Nora Lardner, Carla Roth, and Nina Byard outside the back entrance to Kokosing Asphalt

MAPLE HEIGHTS — On their way to canvassing Garfield Heights for the first time in five years, the Ohio Citizen Action field staff made a quick stop into neighboring Maple Heights to talk to Kokosing Asphalt neighbor Carl Gaglione. The canvassers got a firsthand perspective of the facility that has been causing pollution problems for Gaglione and his neighbors for years.

In March 2010 Citizen Action joined Gaglione and other neighbors in a good neighbor campaign to get Kokosing to reduce pollution at its asphalt facility north of Granger and south of I-480 on the Maple Heights/Garfield Heights border. Kokosing admits to polluting the neighborhood with toxic chemicals such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, organic compounds, and soot. Sulfur dioxide can make it harder to breathe, aggravate asthma, and contribute to acid rain. Soot can cause heart and lung damage and aggravate asthma.

Until 2007, the Kokosing plant was owned by locally-based Schloss Materials, Inc. Then Kokosing, headquartered in Fredericktown, Ohio, bought the plant. According to Gaglione, life in the neighborhood hasn’t been the same since. ”The plant has gotten a lot worse since Kokosing took over. It wasn’t perfect or anything like that when Schloss owned it, but it was a lot better. They seemed to care a lot more about their neighbors.”

— Stephen Gabor, Cleveland Area Campaign Director, Ohio Citizen Action

Kokosing asphalt neighbor Chuck Huck, Lori Jaeger, Matthew Malames, Carla Roth, Stephen Gabor, and Jessica Hodges

CLEVELAND — Maple Heights neighbor Chuck Huck took time out of his workday yesterday to visit Ohio Citizen Action’s downtown Cleveland office. He spoke with the Cleveland field staff about ways to get Kokosing Asphalt to reduce pollution coming from its facility north of Granger and south of I-480 on the Maple Heights/Garfield Heights border. Huck, along with other Maple Heights neighbors, has been active in a campaign to get Kokosing to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, organic compounds, and soot. Sulfur dioxide causes breathing problems, can aggravate asthma and contributes to acid rain. Soot causes heart and lung damage and can also aggravate asthma.

Huck spent an hour with the field staff discussing the history of his relationship with Kokosing, how their pollution has harmed him, why he got involved in the campaign to get them to clean up, and exchanged ideas with the staff about how to persuade them to clean up.

“You can’t get a better perspective on what’s happening with Kokosing than to hear directly from an active neighbor like Chuck,” said Cleveland Field Canvass Director Carla Roth.

— Stephen Gabor, Cleveland Area Campaign Director, Ohio Citizen Action

Matt Keener prepares to interview Chuck Huck

Deanna Broadus during her interview with Matt Keener

MAPLE HEIGHTS — Los Angeles filmmaker Matt Keener came to Maple Heights last Thursday to interview neighbors about pollution coming from Kokosing Asphalt’s plant north of Granger and south of I-480 on the Maple Heights/Garfield Heights border. Keener interviewed Kathy and Chuck Huck and Deanna Broaddus. All three neighbors have been active in a campaign to convince Kokosing to reduce pollution in their neighborhood.

Keener was in town as part of a project being funded by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The project’s goal is to encourage polluting facilities to make products and provide services in cleaner, less harmful ways. Keener works with Collaboration Filmworks, a Los Angeles-based media company that focuses on creating and marketing stories for major motion picture and television projects and provides production support for non-commercial independent film projects. Keener wrote, produced and was assistant director for Random Shooting in L.A. (2002); wrote and directed Self-Inflicted (2005); and produced and directed The Wedding Project (1999).

In her interview with Keener, Broaddus said, “I take care of my health and my body. I exercise, I eat right, and it could all be destroyed by pollution coming from an asphalt plant in my neighborhood.”

— Stephen Gabor, Cleveland Area Campaign Director, Ohio Citizen Action

CLEVELAND — “Any and all acts or omissions of City of Maple Heights, its agents and employees, which allegedly caused the injury at the time and place set forth, were the result of an exercise of discretion vested in them. At all times mentioned in the Complaint, Defendant agents were public employees of City of Maple Heights and if they performed any of the acts or omissions alleged as the basis of the Complaint, the acts or omissions were the result of the exercise of the discretion vested in them. Defendant is therefore immune from liability.”

— Kenneth Schuman, Attorney for Maple Heights, Reply to complaint, Ohio Citizen Action, et al. vs. City of Maple Heights

Read the reply to the complaint

[flickr album=72157625267516268 num=20 size=Thumbnail]

MAPLE HEIGHTS—Two hundred Maple Heights and Garfield Heights neighbors have put up orange and black “Kokosing Asphalt: Clean it Up” yard signs as part of their campaign to get Kokosing to reduce pollution at its asphalt plant north of Granger and south of I-480 on the Maple Heights/Garfield Heights border. Kokosing admits to polluting the neighborhood with sulfur dioxide and soot. Sulfur dioxide causes breathing problems, can aggravate asthma and contributes to acid rain. Soot causes heart and lung damage and can also aggravate asthma. Maple Heights neighbor Kathy Huck, who lives half a block away from Kokosing, is urging the company to take immediate steps to solve their pollution problems. “This plant has seriously affected my quality of life and enjoyment of my home and yard.”

— Stephen Gabor, Cleveland Area Campaign Director, Ohio Citizen Action