Spring is bringing an abundance of activity in Marietta city's 1st Ward including a walking tour of the Cytec property on Monday, April 23 so members of the Cytec Marietta Community Liaison Panel may walk the area under study and repair after decades of use and abuse as a chemical plant and landfill.
I suggested the walking tour because a group of about 20 Cytec, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency,
Marietta City and other individuals and agencies meet monthly to discuss the long-term remediation plan for the Cytec property, located Greene Street just inside the city limits.
Although we meet in the Lafayette Hotel and have extensive presentations about past and proposed work on the site, I thought it would be good to actually walk the area because few people have done so in a number of years.
It will allow participants to get their feet on the ground and the ability to make observations and ask questions of EPA and Cytec officials about various aspects of this most complex and long-term cleanup plan.
Elsewhere, 38 volunteers on March 24 Community Service Day removed 60 tires and eight cubic yards of
broken toliets, television sets, auto parts, aquarium, rusted piping, matress springs and other assorted and sometimes disgusting debris from Marietta City public right of way between Greene and Grandview streets and Hart and Plum Streets. Marietta College students and staff working under the watchful eye of eight Marietta community members collected four large piles of items illegally dumped over the past several decades.
Marietta City Street crews picked up the debris Monday, March 26 and took it to the city equipment garage on Alderman Street for disposal.
A cooperative effort between Kroger Wetlands volunteers and the Washington County Sheriff and jail inmates is underway to cleanup discarded debris from that city natural area.
Meanwhile, business owner Bill Wright of Wright's Auto Sales on Pike Street has asked for the city's assistance in determining who is responsible for maintaining all of the fencing along Pike Street, especially above I-77. Unrepaired damage to the fence after someone drove through it years ago and tattered banners hung on the fence until they biodegrade provide an unsightly entry way into our beautiful and historic city.
Hopefully, we will have a resolution on the fence issue within coming months so it gets repaired or removed.
The many activities taking place within the 1st Ward - new sidewalks on Greene Street, cleanups, installation of no dumping signs and other neighborhood improvements - are only happening because of cooperative efforts between the city, residents, businesses and agencies. Together, Yes We Can. To get involved, please call me:
Roger G. Kalter
1st Ward Council Member
740-373-1784.
