AUSTINTOWN — A gate is expected to be installed at the entrance to the Mahoning Valley 9/11 Memorial on South Raccoon Road within the next month because people are making a mess of the recycling bins there.

Township Park Supervisor Todd Shaffer said the roughly $2,865 cost of the gate will be reimbursed by the Mahoning County Solid Waste District Green Team, which operates the recycling bins at the memorial area.

Because curbside recycling has been temporarily suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the recycling site has been overflowing weekly on Sundays, when the bins are unable to be dumped.

“With the suspension of curbside recycling, our two sites are taking an extra beating and over the weekends, they’re becoming quite messy,” said Shaffer during a teleconference with Austintown trustees. Austintown also has recycling bins at the township park on Kirk Road.

Green Team department head Louis Vega previously said recycling sites cannot be dumped on Sundays because the transfer station in Poland where materials are taken is not open on the weekends. Items collected on Saturdays are left in the trucks until Monday morning. He encouraged everyone to do their recycling during the week.

The recycle bins at the 9/11 site are dumped six days a week, but Shaffer said by mid-day Sundays, the site is “completely trashed.”

With the gate in place, the recycling site will be able to be shut down as necessary to prevent overflow. Shaffer said the gate will also help the driver emptying the bins, who has had to spend longer than usual at the site.

Shaffer said it should take about 20 minutes to empty the 9/11 bins, but it has been taking more like an hour because people come during emptying to dump more materials and get in the way.

In other business at their meeting Monday, township trustees:

• Requested certification from the Mahoning County Auditor’s office for the 0.8-mill replacement park levy and the 1.5-mill replacement levy for resurfacing and repair of roads. Both levies are five-year renewals;

• Declared the following properties nuisances: vacant properties at 5428 Baker St., 4231 Patricia Ave., 1752 Lancaster Drive, 3924 Mahoning Ave., 1918 Penny Lane and the bowling alley at 1741-1747 S. Raccoon Road. They also declared the plaza at 1705-1739 Raccoon Road a nuisance for high grass and weeds and declared 130 N. Navarre Ave. a nuisance for exposed junk and debris;

Declared an inoperable green Maxima with a flat tire and expired license plates at 1739 Lancaster Drive a junk vehicle;

Reminded residents who have not completed the U.S. Census to do so at 2020census.gov or to call the township at 330-792-8584 to get information on how to fill out the census by phone.

avugrincic@tribtoday.com