Most of the story of Monday’s Chillicothe Council session is best told through the public speakers. Council heard anger about the legacy of industrial pollution, urgency to move faster to allow a city building to be transformed, and a little on volunteering to clean up homeless camps.
With the closing of the paper mill, concerns about its leftover pollution - and the groundwater pollution of another industry that the mill's wells are holding back - sparked anger.
The Pixelle paper mill has many wells for the large amount of water needed in paper production. Some have been holding a plume of groundwater pollution from the former Wear-Ever plant on Eastern Avenue, now owned by Howmet, in check.
Learn more in “Chillicothe Mayor Explains Concerns About Paper Mill Shutdown Affecting Wear-Ever Groundwater Pollution.”
I recorded all seven speakers, below in two videos.
Bob Leach, Melody Lapczynski Hatfield, and retired Common Pleas Judge Jhan Corzine are leaders of the effort to turn the city’s water maintenance building on Park Street into an educational display of local memorabilia and militariana, which will accent the next-door Veterans Memorial Park.
They asked council to pass a resolution on second reading to meet a grant deadline to help fund the project. Council obliged them.
Learn more about the effort in “Chillicothe Council Approves Military Tribute Museum Concept,” as well as other stories on the Scioto Post.