ELYRIA — It doesn’t look like much now — it’s simply a cleared field surrounded by trees that is a stone’s throw from downtown.

But the area is perfect for composting, which is great news because starting Monday, the location near Chestnut and Elm streets will open to the public as the Elyria Regional Compost Facility.

The facility, a partnership between Kurtz Bros. of Independence and the city, was five months in the making and will change how the city collects yard waste. Kurtz will operate the facility; the city provided the land.

No longer will residents take grass clippings, leaves and brush to the city’s Central Maintenance Garage. The city site offered no oversight or security and often left city employees to pick up the mess left behind by residents, who dumped their waste at all hours.

Kevin Brubaker, the city’s deputy safety service director, said the new setup is a “win-win-win situation.”

The city benefits because a private company now will be responsible for collecting the raw materials and turning it into compost. Residents will continue to be able to drop off their yard waste for free and, in exchange, the agriculture materials will be available at an “Elyria-only” price.

And Kurtz Bros. will benefit because it’ll get a second retail location, adding to the one it operates in Avon.

The idea to start a partnership with Kurtz Bros. came about because the city is on target to spend more than $170,000 this year to have yard waste hauled away.

The city is paying $13.70 a yard to have grass clippings and yard waste hauled away and $3 a yard to have the same done for leaf waste.

It is estimated that 7,000 cubic yards of grass clippings and yard waste and 25,000 cubic yards of leaf waste will be collected this year.

Kurtz uses the waste to produce mulch, compost and topsoil that it then sells on the retail market.

The new rates for the city under the proposal would be $4 per cubic yard for yard waste and $1 a cubic yard for leaf waste.

Today is the final day residents can drop off yard waste at the city’s Central Maintenance Garage on Garden Street.

Regular hours for dropping off at the new compost facility are 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday.

Unlike before — when residents could make drop offs without informing city employees — residents will have to show identification and/or utility bills to ensure the waste being dropped off is that of Elyria residents only.

Brubaker said the city knows some residents will continue to come to the Garden Street location during the transition.
City employees will be available to point them in the right direction of the new facility.

To educate residents on the change, a flier will soon go out in utility bills, he said.

Beyond the changes in location and time, Brubaker said residents who bag their yard waste in plastic bags will have to break the bags and dump the waste in the designated spot at the new facility.

Kurtz Bros. cannot compost the plastic bags and will not accept bagged material.

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

CLEVELAND – The Indians’ youth movement again paid dividends Saturday in their day/night doubleheader with the Minnesota Twins.

In the opener, right-handed reliever Zach Putnam earned his first major league victory as the Tribe poured it on late for an 8-2 win.

The second game saw fellow rookie Nick Hagadone accomplish the same feat when Cleveland scored seven straight runs to steal a 7-6 victory. It was the biggest comeback of the year for the Indians, who have won eight straight over the Twins.

“It was a long, but productive day,” said Tribe manager Manny Acta, whose squad is 80-78. “It’s especially nice to see two kids getting their first wins on the major league level on the same day.

“Obviously we’re disappointed that we’re not going to the playoffs, but what’s gone on this season is definitely a step in the right direction.”

It also was a memorable day for left fielder Shelley Duncan, who knocked in three runs in each game and had both game-winning RBIs. The journeyman went 3-for-7 with one run, two doubles and a home run.

“Shelley continues to be a huge force offensively for us,” Acta said. “He’s made the most of the opportunities he’s been given this year, and he looks very confident out there every day.”

Tribe right-hander Mitch Talbot got rocked in his return from the minors, allowing six runs, nine hits and four walks in 5 1/3 innings in the second game. He exited with the Tribe trailing 6-0, but was taken off the hook when it scored seven runs over the next two innings.

“I felt a little out of whack tonight, not fluid is maybe the best way to put it,” said Talbot, whose final stats were a 2-6 record with a 6.64 ERA. “I definitely didn’t want it to happen, but unfortunately, it did.”

Cleveland’s bullpen followed with 3 2/3 scoreless innings as lefty Hagadone (1-0, 4.82 ERA) recorded three outs to pick up the win. All-Star closer Chris Perez locked down his 36th save.

“Again tonight, our bullpen was outstanding,” Acta said. “Hagadone threw the ball the best he has here so far, and Chris has been fantastic for us all season. I don’t know if anyone in baseball has more one-run saves than Chris, but he’s been nails in those situations.”

The Indians did suffer a pair of injuries as center fielder Trevor Crowe strained his right shoulder in Game 1, and shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera’s sore right elbow flared up in Game 2.

The day started on a good note for the Tribe as David Huff struck out a career-high seven and didn’t permit a walk in 5 2/3 strong innings. The lefty was aggressive and accurate with his fastball, throwing 67 strikes in a 101-pitch outing.

“From where I was at the beginning of the season to now, I’ve made some great strides,” said Huff, who finished the year with a career-low 4.09 ERA and 2-6 record. “(The Indians) have told me I’ll be fighting for a spot in the rotation next year, which is what I’ve been doing for three years. I look forward to it.”

Putnam (1-1, 6.35 ERA) replaced Huff with two outs in the sixth and tossed
1 1/3 scoreless innings. He earned the victory when the Tribe broke a 2-2 tie by torching Minnesota reliever Francisco Liriano (9-10, 5.09 ERA) for five runs.

“I feel awesome, and I’m glad I was able to contribute to the team getting a win,” said Putnam, who was Cleveland’s fifth-round draft pick in 2008. “This is such a great situation to be in because we’ve got a lot of good guys in this clubhouse. I’m just trying to pitch in.”

Contact Brian Dulik at brisports@hotmail.com.

TODAY

• WHO: Cleveland vs. Minnesota
• TIME: 1:05
• WHERE: Progressive Field
• PITCHERS: Carmona (7-15, 5.23 ERA) vs. Hendriks (0-2, 6.23)
• TV/RADIO:  SportsTime Ohio; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

CLEVELAND — Ubaldo Jimenez’s final home start of the season looked like most of his other games with the Indians.

The right-handed flamethrower was overpowering at times, but couldn’t avoid one bad inning.

Alejandro De Aza ripped a go-ahead, two-run single in the top of the seventh Wednesday, propelling the Chicago White Sox to an 8-4 win over the Tribe.

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Jimenez entered the inning with a 2-1 lead, but took the loss after allowing an RBI double to Brent Morel and De Aza’s drive to the base of the wall in left-center field. He exited at the end of the seventh with Cleveland trailing 4-2.

“I just lost the control, I lost my radar,” said Jimenez, who fell to 4-2 with a 4.62 ERA in 10 appearances with the Indians. “Tonight was probably the best game I’ve had here until then because I was throwing good sliders and my fastball was working.

“I didn’t get tired in the seventh. I felt good. I just tried to go up and in on De Aza, but it didn’t happen and he hit it.”

Jimenez (10-12, 4.52 ERA) allowed four earned runs, six hits and two walks while striking out seven in a 113-pitch outing. He was in position to get the win after Tribe designated hitter Travis Hafner hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth, erasing Chicago’s 1-0 lead.

Hafner’s 360-foot shot to right also convinced Cleveland manager Manny Acta to keep Jimenez in the game, which he attributed to his status as the team’s ace. He was acquired from Colorado on July 31 in exchange for pitching prospects Drew Pomeranz and Alex White, and two other minor leaguers.

“I thought Ubaldo threw the ball well, and he was cruising pretty much until the seventh there,” Acta said. “I tried to stretch him a bit like a top of the rotation guy, but it just backfired on us.

“You want to give him a chance to win the ballgame, but he missed his location a couple of times. I feel bad myself because I wanted to push him, and he couldn’t do it.”

After Chicago reclaimed the lead off Jimenez, it blew the game wide open in the eighth against Indians reliever Chad Durbin. He surrendered three long home runs — totaling 1,182 feet to Alexei Ramirez, Alex Rios and Morel — and four runs to extend the White Sox’s lead to 8-2.

The Tribe scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Jason Kipnis and a single by Carlos Santana, but it was far too little, too late on this quiet fall night.

Chicago left-hander Mark Buehrle (12-9, 3.72) earned the victory with six innings of two-run, four-hit ball. The veteran had lost his first three September starts, but found the magic elixir at Progressive Field in improving to 15-17 all-time against Cleveland.

Jesse Crain, Jason Frasor, Will Ohman and Sergio Santos tossed the final three innings for the White Sox, scattering four hits and a pair of runs, while Frank Herrmann mopped up for the Indians.

“Buehrle just changed speeds and threw strikes tonight,” Hafner said. “You know what you’re going to get when you face him because that’s what he always does.”

Contact Brian Dulik at brisports@hotmail.com.

ELYRIA — Lorain County’s 4-H program could feel the budget ax if the 0.25 percent sales tax increase proposed by the county commissioners fails to win the support of voters in November.

Jessica Robenolt, 19, of Oberlin, poses with her Arabian horse Snickers on Wednesday. (CT photo by Chuck Humel.)

The commissioners agreed Wednesday to a list of about $2.1 million worth of cuts that would be imposed on county government if the sales tax hike is shot down. The list included completely eliminating the $86,400 the commissioners have given to The Ohio State University Extension Office, which runs the county’s 4-H program, for the past two years.

Without that money, extension Director Linnette Goard warned, the office won’t be able to get state or federal matching funds and would have to close. With it would also close the 4-H program, which has more than 2,000 members involved in 86 clubs in the county. The extension office has a budget this year of nearly $287,000.

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“If the OSU Extension closes, 4-H is gone, and all extension services are gone,” Goard said.

Even if the Lorain County extension office were to merge with another county, most likely Medina, Goard said the commissioners would still need to contribute money. She also said that the extension has taken a proactive approach to possible budget problems and is laying off three employees.

The possibility of losing 4-H, which is heavily involved in the Lorain County Fair, doesn’t sit well with 16-year-old Kayla Mackey of Kipton, who is a member of two 4-H clubs that she credits with teaching her skills ranging from leadership to how to care for her rabbits and goats.

She said 4-H programs are in trouble all over the state because of budget cuts.

“I can’t see my life without 4-H,” Kayla said. “I understand that the county is going down, but so is everything else. We are one of the few counties that still has 4-H, and a lot of us are barely holding on.”

Commissioner Ted Kalo, who put forth the list of possible cuts, said he’s a longtime supporter of 4-H and isn’t happy about the cuts he had to propose, but the extension office isn’t a service that county government is mandated to provide.
“We don’t have the revenue,” he said. “We don’t have a whole lot of discretionary funding.”

Brenda Lea Teeters, one of the 376 adult 4-H volunteers in the county, said losing the extension office and 4-H would be great loss for the county, but she also hopes the possibility spurs voters to vote for the sales tax.

“I don’t think it’s a scare tactic, we’ve all felt the pinch,” Teeters said.

Commissioner Tom Williams, who has pushed for deeper cuts than Kalo proposed, said he wasn’t particularly pleased with the prospect of eliminating the county’s OSU extension office. He said he’d rather see the funding cut elsewhere in county government, possibly from county Auditor Mark Stewart’s budget, which would already be cut by $200,000 under Kalo’s proposal if the sales tax fails.

“We may have to make a cut, but I don’t want to lose federal funding, and I don’t want to lose 4-H,” Williams said. “But times are tough.”

Commissioner Lori Kokoski said she was a member of 4-H when she was growing up and she hopes that the program can survive. There’s always the possibility that the proposed cut to the extension office won’t need to be as severe, she said.
“The budget is a living document, so it’s something that can be changed,” she said.

Kalo’s proposal listed more than $2.1 million in cuts, although it also noted that another $372,600 worth of cuts will likely still need to be made if the tax increase fails.

If the full $2.5 million worth of cuts Kalo’s proposal said were necessary — which also included slashing the county’s contribution to Lorain County Transit from $100,000 to $50,000 — were imposed in the event the tax increase fails, they would allow the county to survive through 2012, but it would also mean there would be no carryover into 2013.

Williams said he believes additional cuts will be necessary or the county will be looking at an additional $12 million in budget reductions when 2013 arrives. Cuts will still be necessary if the sales tax passes, he said.

“I’m on board saying that the $2.5 million should balance our budget for 2012, but it doesn’t solve our problems,” he said.

The proposal would also see the county jail, which has an annual budget of nearly $12 million lose $350,000 if the tax hike fails. The jail is funded through a dedicated sales tax that generates around $7.5 million annually and the commissioners contribute the extra money.

Sheriff Phil Stammitti, who has avoided reductions to his law enforcement budget in the most recent cuts, said he doesn’t like the prospect of running the jail with less money. He said he’s already short staffed and doing everything he can to keep costs under control.

The commissioners need to find a better way to deal with the budget gap than just cutting, Stammitti said.

“It’s their job to come up with the funds so elected officials can run their offices,” Stammitti said.

County Prosecutor Dennis Will, who will see his budget cut $200,000 under Kalo’s proposal, said losing that kind of money will mean his office will take even longer to get work done. Some things might not get done at all, he said.

“There’s nowhere to absorb it,” Will said. “It’s going to be a reduction in personnel.”

The biggest potential cut under the proposal would be to the county’s Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court judges, who would lose the $648,000 they use to fund the Pathways and Turning Point facilities.

Those facilities are among the few places the commissioners are able to cut in the court system because of orders from the county’s judges requiring the commissioners to fund their operations at a certain level.

Juvenile Court Administrator Doug Messer said both Pathways and Turning Point provide valuable and necessary services for the county’s children.

“We are very hopeful the citizens of Lorain County will see their way to pass the sales tax to avoid that catastrophic loss,” he said.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.