March 2026 community meeting: Recycling facility new owner: $3M in improvements to site since last year | The Homepage

Also: Updates on BioForge construction and public art, Center of Life ‘hub’ design finalized

Photos taken before and after Republic Services bought the recycling facility at 50 Vespucius St. in Hazelwood show large amounts of trash outdoors in February 2025. By September 2025 the concrete floor outside the facility is clear of debris. Image courtesy of Republic Services

By Managing Editor Juliet Martinez

People at the March 10 Greater Hazelwood community meeting were in good spirits. Friends and neighbors caught up with each other before the meeting started. Center of Life’s Tim Smith presented the design for his organization’s community hub planned for Hazelwood Green. Artist Edith Abeyta and University of Pittsburgh representatives gave an update on the public art planned for the BioForge facility. And the manager of the recycling facility on Vespucius Street said it is cleaner than before.

Recycling facility

Lori Kolczynski is Republic Services’ general manager for the Pittsburgh market. She showed photos of changes she and her team have made at the recycling facility since Republic Services bought it last February. The company has spent more than $3 million on improvements since then, she said.

Before-and-after comparisons showed large piles of recycling materials stored outdoors in February 2025. But photos from last September show the pavement around the facility clear of trash. A fence now encloses the property to prevent debris from being blown onto neighboring areas. The building has new doors on the front and back. Two more doors will be added by July, allowing the building to be completely enclosed, Ms. Kolczynski said. The employee break areas have been updated as well.

She was aware of neighbors’ complaints about odors and debris around the building. This motivated the push to have all the equipment and recycling material indoors. She was also aware of the rat problem and said she has been aggressive about trapping them and controlling the infestation.

“We know it’s going to be an ongoing thing,” she said.

A third-party sweeper cleans the outdoor areas once a week, and Ms. Kolczynski walks the perimeter every day to make sure litter is kept at a minimum.

Complaints about the facility have surfaced at recent zoning hearings on how far waste transfer stations should be from homes. Waste transfer facilities give people and companies a local place to take their construction debris and trash without driving the distance to the landfill. Ms. Kolczynski explained that the trash is then collected and compacted in a truck that takes it the rest of the way to the landfill. The state permit requires the floor to be swept clean every day, leaving no trash behind.

Pennsylvania requires waste transfer stations to be 300 feet from any residential properties. This is doable on the recycling facility’s property, yet Ms. Kolczynski said Republic Services bought it for recycling and does not intend to put a waste transfer station there.

But she said that if they did, they would keep it clean. Trucks would visit the waste transfer station on the railroad side of the facility, on the opposite side from the neighboring homes. They would avoid high traffic times on Second Avenue. She added that putting in the waste transfer station would create jobs in the neighborhood.

“It’s something that I would have liked the opportunity to explore at a later time, but depending on what happens with legislation, I don’t know that that is going to be something that we would be able to consider,” she said.

She added that if they did have a waste transfer station there, the trash would be stored and loaded onto trucks indoors. It would not be visible from a future bike path or the foot bridge that crosses the tracks at Melanchton Street just north of the facility.

Two days after this meeting, Republic Services was issued a waste transfer station permit. See Page 1 for more on this and on a recent zoning ordinance affecting waste transfer stations.

Center of Life community hub

Tim Smith is the founder of Center of Life, a community service nonprofit in Hazelwood. The organization is planning to build a “community hub” on Hazelwood Green. Mr. Smith gave an update on this project as part of a development activities meeting. The meeting invited public input before the project seeks final approval from the Planning Commission. The project does not require any zoning variances.

The community center will be located on Hazelwood Avenue across from the Steelers athletic field that is under construction now. The building will have solar panels, heat pumps and other “clean and green” technology, Mr. Smith said. It will also be fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The hub will house all of Center of Life’s programs. The organization’s after-school academics and arts programs, as well as its social services, will have dedicated spaces, Mr. Smith said.

The building will also have a health center and a branch office of a bank that has not been determined yet. It will have a basketball court, a high-school-sized auditorium/performance space, a cafeteria, a full-service fitness center and a University of Pittsburgh Community Engagement Center.

Keith Caldwell is the executive director of place-based initiatives at the University of Pittsburgh. He said the university’s center will be a space for meeting, hosting students and developing partnerships.

The building will take time to build, but Pitt is active in Hazelwood already, Mr. Caldwell said. The university has recently launched a life sciences workforce training program. Health sciences professionals are partnering with nonprofit JADA House International for youth and senior programming. And nursing students are engaging with neighborhood seniors.

BioForge public art

Heidi Ward is the director of the University of Pittsburgh Greater Hazelwood neighborhood commitment and a Hazelwood resident. She gave a construction update on the University of Pittsburgh BioForge facility on Hazelwood Green. BioForge will be a biomanufacturing facility that will focus on developing cell and gene therapies for illnesses that are hard to treat.

The building’s core and shell are complete, Ms. Ward said. Now, the process of building the indoor labs begins. Once they are built, they will go through a demanding permitting process. All of that is expected to finish next year.

In the meantime, the process of conceiving and making the public art that will adorn the outside rolls forward.

Edith Abeyta is the co-founder of Hazelwood-based Arts Excursions Unlimited. She has helped facilitate the artist selection and community input process for the BioForge public art installation.

Through a year-long selection process, a steering committee of people from Hazelwood learned about 14 artist applicants. The committee picked a team of three local artists who applied together.

The team recently toured the neighborhood and met community leaders. They are now in the conceptual design phase of the project. The design will be reviewed by the steering committee and changes will be made. They will return to present the final design at a future community meeting.

After that, the project will be fabricated and installed. See Page 1 to learn more about the artists selected.

Hazelwood Initiative Inc.

The community development corporation has a new employee. Calvin Dziewulski was an intern there starting in 2024. He is now the real estate project manager. See below for more information.

Explore green jobs

Tiffany Taulton is the green workforce strategist for Dream.org and a Hazelwood resident. She announced a green career exploration series starting in April. She wants to attract people who are not well represented in the green economy, like those who have had contact with the justice system and face other barriers.

Green jobs are the jobs of the future, she said. The series will give people a chance to learn more about them. It will take five or six hours per week. Participants will receive a weekly webinar to learn about a certain kind of green industry job. They will also go on field trips to learn about green careers in person. They will be asked to keep a journal, and they will get résumé help.

Learn more by contacting Ms. Taulton at Tiffany.Taulton @dream.org or 412-392-7427.