WHEATLAND

Despite council's intention Wednesday to make a decision once and for all on the Taylor estate property, it didn't happen.

Council members said they still have questions about the borough's liability and will try to set up a meeting with solicitor William Madden and state Department of Environmental Protection official Mark Gorman to answer them.

The state has asked council to take over ownership of the site at the south end of Church Street, west of Wheatland Tube Corp. The Alvin Taylor estate and the John Maneely Co., parent company of Wheatland Tube, have agreed to turn over their rights to the borough.

The estate and Maneely each contend the other owns the property, and ownership has been the subject of an ongoing court battle.

The 40-acre property was an unpermitted landfill where municipal and industrial wastes were dumped from 1959 into the '70s,.

The state had the 40-acre site cleaned up in 1999, and the waste, some of which is hazardous to humans, was consolidated on 10 acres and covered with topsoil.

According to a letter from Gorman, program manager of hazardous-sites cleanup, the state fashioned the agreement for the borough to take ownership to "insulate the borough from liability associated with the hazardous substances disposed at the site."

The state wants the borough to take over the property to return it to "beneficial public use" and assure it will be kept up.

"We have entered into similar agreements with public and nonprofit entities at several other sites, which are now safely in full-time public use as ballfields, environmental interpretive centers and golf courses," Gorman said.

The borough has until Aug. 9 to decide, or the state will withdraw its offer, he said.

Council members said they are worried about the borough's maintenance responsibilities.

Mayor Tom Stanton, who has pushed for the borough to take over the site, particularly in the contaminated areas, said the borough would only have to visually inspect the 10 contaminated acres, which are fenced off, and report to the state signs of erosion, water pooling or runoff and the growth of trees.

DEP wants the cap of the contaminated areas to be maintained so the waste encapsulated within will not be disturbed, he said.

DEP has said the "responsible parties" would have to take care of any erosion.

In the past, DEP has used the term "responsible parties" to mean the companies that were determined to have been responsible for the condition of the site -- CBS, Grimes Aerospace, Maneely, Armco Inc. and the Taylor estate.

Wheatland Tube has been maintaining the monitoring wells on the property, and would continue to do so if it were sold, Stanton said.

The estate and the companies ended up paying for the cleanup.

Council President David Cusick said he wasn't sure what the term meant.

"Why would they be responsible if we own it?" he asked.

Councilwoman Lorraine Brown said she is worried how the borough will keep people out of the contaminated area.

"If someone else takes it over, who's to say they take care of it properly?" she said. ""If we take it over and don't maintain it properly, it's the public's butt."

Cusick said borough street department workers have vowed not to set foot on the property for fear of health repercussions.

"Well, then, fire them," Stanton responded, arguing that the property is safe and was only potentially dangerous to public health when he was a boy and walked through a cornfield there to get to the Shenango River to swim.

Stanton also offered to make the twice-annual inspections of the property if the street crews won't.

And while Stanton had said he would like to see the property cleaned up and maybe a walking trail built there, he said that decision would be up to council in the future.

Stanton said he won't propose any improvements without a firm plan and a possible funding source.

"If you take over this, you won't have to do anything," he said. "I'm just giving you ideas."

Councilman Donald Stinedurf said he does not feel comfortable rendering a decision.

"I don't have enough to make an intelligent decision," he said. "I want a little more information."