To the editor:

I attended the zoning appeals board meeting regarding the exception for the Six Recycling business to relocate to the former Hall China Company complex at the other end of the East End. The area is zoned for industry but the exception was denied.

We were given a “history” lesson from the opponents on the evils of the business, being a bad neighbor, the potential for ongoing health problems, the lies and distrust of the owners, and how it would be a detriment to the local neighborhood.

The fact that the company has been in operation for over 30 years (longer under previous ownership); a viable and necessary business that helps to deal with the endless accumulation of scrap, junk and debris; an employer offering good-paying jobs; and a tax-paying business for East Liverpool; was basically ignored and downplayed.

My “history” is a personal one regarding East End and the role of industrial development and neighborhoods. My parents were raised and grew up in the East End. My grandmother (dad’s mom) was an immigrant from Ireland during World War I. She married my grandfather (an American) and raised her five children in East End. She had a dream to open her own business and started Kelly’s Market on Mulberry Street next to the train tracks. Her store was a small business that helped meet the needs of the neighborhood/community. She was an employer and tax-paying business.

Across the street was her neighbor, the Berman Scrap Yard, now Six Recycling. The store eventually closed back in the 1960s with the onset of the major grocery store chains that wiped out the neighborhood grocers. The little store was torn down for the parking lot next to Casa de Emanuel.

My grandfather (mom’s dad) was an iron worker employed at Mackintosh-Hemphill in Midland, Pa. They lived on Erie Street and he had a dream to start his own business. He built a small iron foundry in his backyard on Erie. Imagine a foundry on Erie Street! He made iron castings and guides for the local steel mills such as Crucible, Republic, Timken, Patterson Foundry and the Stevens Company in Wellsville.

He bought the scrap metal to melt down and make the casting and guides from Berman’s Scrap Yard. He built a bigger foundry, hired more employees, and continued to pay taxes to the city

When my dad and mom took over the business after my grandfather died in 1960, they continued to run Lane Foundry until it had to be relocated due to the new Chester Bridge and ramps that were being built. They relocated to Second Street and Market next to the Seaforth Company and continued to buy materials and scrap from now, Six Recycling. The family business is no longer in operation and is only a memory, now, along with Kelly’s Market.

In today’s environment, my grandparents may have found difficulty in “living the American Dream” and giving back to the city and neighborhoods that they loved and called home. It saddens me that someone’s dream is viewed as someone’s nightmare and that economic progess, business expansion, and possibly, raising the standard of living is shut down once again.

PHILLIP KELLY,

East Liverpool