CITY COUNCIL SLATED TO VOTE ON NEW METH LAB ORDINANCE DEC. 8

Cuyahoga Falls -- The rules for reporting, remediating and
re-occupying clandestine drug labs in the city will go before City
Council for a vote on Dec. 8.

The legislation has been in the making since June.

"The clandestine drug lab ordinance is the only one of its kind in
the state," Hope Jones, the city's deputy law director, told the
Falls News-Press. "I am proud that the administration and City
Council took the lead on this issue."

The purpose of the proposed legislation is to reduce public exposure
to health risks where law enforcement officers have determined that
hazardous chemicals from a suspected clandestine drug lab site or
associated dump site may exist.

The proposed ordinance defines a clandestine drug lab site as any
land, dwelling or structure where controlled substances are
illegally manufactured, as determined by law enforcement officials.
The new ordinance would require law enforcement authorities
to notify a city building official once they declare a property a
public health nuisance due to its designation as a clandestine drug
lab site or chemical dump site.

The building official must then notify the owner, occupants,
neighbors, police, and government authorities. The proposed
ordinance gives the owner 90 days to complete remediation and
post-remediation assessment, and it requires disclosure to buyers
and occupants of a property that it once was declared a public
health nuisance or was the site of a clandestine drug lab.

The revised legislation, which Jones presented to Council Dec. 1,
states "all adjacent property owners and any other neighbors at
probable risk," "the primary mortgage holder" and "City Council
members" are among those to notify when a clandestine drug lab, or
meth lab, is discovered and declared a public nuisance.

If the state or federal government passes cleanup guidelines that
are more stringent than the city's or that pre-empt local
regulation, its cleanup guidelines shall prevail, she said.

Jones also added a requirement that the chief building official
notify the Summit County Sheriff and the Summit County Department of
Health that the property has been cleared for re-occupancy. She put
in the criteria that the remediation firm performing preliminary
and post-remediation assessments be a different firm than the one
that performs the remediation.

Jones thanked Council members for their input, noting she believes
the ordinance is better now than when it was first written. Many of
the changes were based on Council's input.

After the meeting, Jones said the owner will not pay any public
costs such as those connected with the detection of a meth lab and
cleanup of chemicals by the police department. The only cost the
owner will have to pay is that to remediate the property for
reoccupation, she said, adding that if the city has to do
the remediation, the city will assess the property for the actual cost.