Owners of Summit County property where meth labs are found will have to pay for the cleanup.

Summit County Council approved an ordinance at Monday night's meeting...that charges back the cost of cleaning up chemicals and meth lab devices to those property owners in the county's townships.

Summit County Council president Jerry Feeman says that the county Sheriff's Department came to council for help.

"I know at one time, the Sheriff's Department said something to me about them spending just a phenomenal amount of money on the cleanup, and we were running short," Feeman tells AkronNewsNow.com, "so, they approached us quite some time ago.

Summit County Council president Jerry Feeman by MPWard

Summit County is dealing with the discovery of meth labs in the townships, much as the county's cities are also dealing with the problem.

Feeman says Summit County wants to be prepared as the meth lab problem grows outside the county's cities.

"Of course, our police have done a phenomenal job as far going after these folks that are cooking this stuff," Feeman says. "It's gonna catch on with the townships, too, and we'd rather be in place than not be in place, and paying out of pocket."

In other business, council approved vacating a small section of Stanford Road in Boston Township, where the land near one property will be maintained as a park road by the National Park Service.

The rest of Stanford Road and two other Boston Township roads, Wetmore Road and Oak Hill Road, that are considered for vacation... are on council's list for more time to consider the impact of vacating the roads.

County Council also honored the Northwest Akron Youth Baseball League, and gave commendations to Sheriff's Deputies Bill McKinney and Mark McElroy for saving a 3 year-old child from drowning in an Arizona hotel swimming pool, while they were there to bring a fugitive prisoner back to Ohio.