If you look at the pictures and the specs you'll see Kurtz is claiming no “gypsum” or “drywall” that when wet creates “hydrogen sulfide gas” is on the site. Don't believe it. You've seen houses demolished. Do contractors remove the drywall? The Cuyahoga County Landbank Gus Frangos leads as president encouraged demolition contractors to use the Noble Road site to dump landbank homes with drywall in them. I trust Jim Riffle and his environmental report. I trust the former FBI analyst who owns the lab that tested Jim's samples. I don't know Kurtz Brothers and have no reason to trust what they've shared to be true. I'll be asking the health department for a copy of the tests the company ran to determine that no drywall exists at the site. There's drywall on the site. I've seen it with my own eyes. Would it be accurate to deduce that ignoring the drywall is a way to minimize the liability of the Ohio EPA and City of Cleveland for allowing the site to exist and not testing it?

The “hard fill” the county does say exists at the site includes concrete, brick, rebar, asphalt and non-recognizable materials. There's no reference to the type of waste Harry Drummond and other Noble Road residents saw being trucked into the dump by Pete & Pete daily. The container company advertises that it removes construction materials, organic material and general trash. The RFP references “dirt” as an organic material that has to be removed from the site, but I've already shared with you that the dirt ain't dirt. What looks like dirt is ground drywall and other grindable building materials.

Kurtz is suggesting that the ground building material or solid waste described in the RFP as “dirt” can be used as backfill. Backfill is used to fill holes left when houses or buildings are demolished. The “fill” is supposed to be “clean.” Kurtz sells a special blend of allegedly clean fill to demolition contractors who are required to buy it by county land bank officials. The cleanliness of Kurtz's clean fill is questionable and it's expensive. If county board of health allows Kurtz to classify the ground building material as dirt they'll be responsible for spreading the contaminated solid waste to residential neighborhoods.

His name is not on the attendance list but George Michael Riley attended the county board of health's meeting as a prospective bidder with his partner, Melissa Cyphert of Red Rock Services. The guy has a lot of nerve to try and profit off the life-threatening mess he created with the help of Gary Norton, Brandon King and Thomas Wheeler.

Riley violated the East Cleveland city council resolution that transferred him the property with instructions that he get it read for “redevelopment.” East Cleveland's land bank ordinance has a two year “reversion clause” that returned the property to the city if he didn't prepare it for redevelopment in that time. I know because I had to enforce it.

Riley conspired with Norton to ignore the two year reversion clause. Council didn't authorize him to do it as the only officials empowered to transfer property. Norton transferred the property to Riley's company less than three months after council approved the resolution telling him to get 1705 Noble Road ready for redevelopment. He then started illegally dumping on the site. Yes. This dude has a lot of gotdamned nerve. Instead of possibly bidding on the clean-up he should be facing criminal prosecution.

There's a lot more to the story and I'll be sharing soon. Forget the mainstream media's coverage of the Noble Road dump closing. Plain Dealer and cleveland.com reporters will look like fools for trying to create the false illusion that Craig Butler of the Ohio EPA is some sort of right-thinking hero. You already know the Plain Dealer and cleveland.com are not credible reporters of news or the truth.

Here's a question for you all to ponder. Who "owns" the construction and demolition material the county landbank authorized its demolition contractors to dump at 1705 Noble Road? Is it owned by the dumpers or Frango's landbank?