Events Calendar
In This Section
Most Read Stories
Man robbed at Tallmadge Avenue eatery
Another winter punch heading toward Ohio
Four teens restrain man, take items from his Akron home
Complaints against officer keep coming
Police: Ohio girl dies after fall into snow bank
Region makes way for latest batch of snow; cancellations rise
Cuyahoga Falls residents come home to find burning couch on balcony
Blogs:
First Bell - On Education:
No City of Akron basketball tonight
Pets:
Pet telethon re-airs
The Heldenfiles:
Chipmunks "Squeakquel" on DVD/BD March 30
Akron Zips:
Late surge gives Zips ugly road win
Tribe Matters:
Blogmail response on Hafner
Cleveland Browns:
Stallworth's contract terminated
Balanced Ledger:
QB in Browns future: another mock draft
Kent State Sports:
KSU Notes – February 9
Cleveland Cavaliers:
NBA Power Rankings from Around the Internet
Buckeye Blogging:
Buckeyes grab 18 players on signing day
Varsity Letters:
Garfield at Buchtel basketball
All Da King's Men:
Palin At The Tea Party Convention
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Republican Pre-Conditions
Akron Law Café:
Law, Love and Chocolate
Car Chase:
Collector Car Hobby Loses One of the Best—Jim Roll
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.
Sound Check:
Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend
HRLite House:
OFCCP Report
Akron Gamer:
Makers of 'Castle Crashers' unveil 'BattleBlock Theater'
See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering
Published on Saturday, May 17, 2008
Question: When is a backhoe trencher not a backhoe trencher?
Answer: When the huge piece of construction equipment is listed as 6,000 pounds of ''unprepared torching steel'' by a scrap-metal dealer.
That is how a purportedly stolen Warner & Swasey trencher was listed on a manifest of a local scrap yard, illustrating just one of the obstacles city lawmakers have had to grapple with in trying to craft a new scrap yard ordinance.
The current law doesn't require a scrap dealer to list a backhoe trencher — or any other item for that matter — by a specific name or description when it is purchased as scrap material.
And that's a big problem for police trying to track stolen items.
''It [the description] wouldn't tell me that it was a trencher, a workable piece of machinery with a serial number,'' said detective Paul Bralek of the Akron Police Department's pawn detail.
As it turned out, the trencher transaction stemmed from a dispute between feuding brothers, in which one of them sold the trencher to a towing company that in turn hauled it to a local scrap yard and sold it for $897.33.
Bralek said the case ''ended up being a family matter'' that will probably be handled in civil court, but that is not the real concern.
''There is nothing that requires a scrap yard to give an accurate description,'' Bralek said. ''The only requirement is that anything they purchase for more than $50 requires the seller to provide an ID.
''Right now the descriptions are so vague you can't tell by reading (scrap yard) records what was brought in, plus there is no tracking information. . . . We want that paper trail,'' Bralek said.
With prices for scrap metal soaring, sales in scrap metal are booming, not only for dealers but also for thieves looking for a quick buck.
And that's why Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic has called for the city's scrap-metal law to be updated and toughened. But the road to finalizing such an ordinance has been littered with obstacles.
City, county plan
A stab at overhauling the law was attempted more than two years ago when the city partnered with Summit County to come up with a set of county-wide rules to govern the scrap-metal business.
That effort was placed on hold when state lawmakers introduced a measure — Senate Bill 171 — promising a comprehensive statewide approach to regulating scrap dealers. But that effort has bogged down as legislators, for nearly a year, have haggled over various provisions of the bill.
''We just couldn't afford to wait any longer for the state,'' said Jim Shealey, Akron councilman-at-large. He said with metal thefts reaching epidemic proportions in the city, something had to be done.
Shealey said the problem literally blew up when two recent explosions in vacant houses were attributed to the buildup of gas after pipes in those houses were ripped out by thieves.
With the price for copper tripling in the last year to around $4 a pound — and similar increases for aluminum and several other metals — thievery is rampant. Catalytic converters have been cut from underneath cars and trucks, aluminum siding has been stripped from homes, and even aluminum bleachers from a local high school were cut free and sold as scrap.
Last year, 60 decorative bronze landscaping lights owned by the city were removed from Cascade Plaza downtown and redeemed for cash at a local scrap yard.
Unique business
Elaine Davidson, Akron's assistant law director who is in charge of crafting a new scrap ordinance, said there is nothing on the city's books to deal specifically with scrap metal.
''What we have deals with junkyards and junk dealers,'' she said.
''We want to have an effective way to deter stolen scrap and report stolen goods to police.
''We don't want to unduly burden scrap dealers,'' she said, ''but we need to get a handle on the situation.''
To balance the needs of the citizens with those of the scrap business, Davidson has enlisted the input of dealers like Jeffrey Bauer, general manager of Metalico Annaco scrap yard. Bauer's operation covers 20 acres off Hazel Avenue and has 80 employees.
''We want to stop theft like everyone else. . . . We want a law that will accomplish the goal of stopping the stealing of scrap,'' Bauer said, ''but we don't want a lot of restrictions that could be burdensome . . . We want a law that works for everyone.''
After viewing six rough drafts of the proposed ordinance, Bauer believes the city is on the right track, but there are still areas of concern.
'Tag and hold'
''Tag and hold is problematic,'' he said.
The latest version of the ordinance requires a scrap-metal dealer to store for at least seven days any ''articles or material composed of copper, brass, aluminum or stainless steel.''
In addition, that material must carry a tag that identifies the date and transaction number.
''I would have to hold it for seven days before I can do anything with it. . . . What I pay is based on the market value of the material the day I take it in. That rate could change in seven days,'' Bauer stressed.
His other problem with the ''tag and hold'' concept is storage.
Standing in front of a mountain of aluminium scrap, mainly aluminium siding, more than 10 feet high at points and covering 25 yards, Bauer wondered aloud where he would find space to ''hold'' the material on his lot before he processed it.
''I take in about 80,000 pounds of aluminum a day,'' he said.
Then there is the requirement to fingerprint anyone selling scrap.
''For us (fingerprinting) would be fairly simple, we would just add it to our ID scanner system,'' said Bauer. His system electronically scans a person's driver's license and places that information in a computer file that keeps a running record of all transactions.
''But what about the smaller operators?'' Bauer asked. ''The requirements could put them out of business.''
He also noted that the description of items for the purposes of the scrap business aren't necessarily in line with what police want. It was Bauer's yard that listed the trencher as 6,000 pounds of unprepared torching steel.
''That is what it is to us. Just like we would have recorded the stolen bleachers as extruded aluminium or a barbecue grill as cast aluminum,'' Bauer said.
''There are more than 60 varieties of brass alone,'' he said.
But Bralek wasn't swayed by Bauer's argument.
''Telling us that we have to get used to their jargon ain't going to work,'' said Bralek, who also expressed concern that an eventual state law would water down any ordinance Akron implements.
Bralek pointed out that the scrap dealers' trade association — the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. — has already proposed compromise language to the state legislation that would ban any municipality from enforcing any regulation requiring the ''tag and hold'' practice.
Still, despite some disagreements, Bauer remains supportive of tougher regulations.
''We are already doing 80 percent of what the city is proposing,'' Bauer said.
Davidson said a scrap ordinance that would require proof of ownership of higher-priced items like catalytic converters and grave markers as well as the banning of all cash payments, could be ready for council's approval as early as Monday.
Carl Chancellor can be reached at 330-996-3725 or cchancellor@thebeaconjournal.com.
Question: When is a backhoe trencher not a backhoe trencher?
Get the full article here.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
