A Hillsboro man, accused of illegally dumped hundreds of scrap tires in Highland County, will spend the next four years in prison, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced on Monday.
Ronald Ison, 37, was sentenced on Oct. 17th after he pleaded no contest in August to seven counts of illegal open dumping of scrap tires and one count of illegal transportation of scrap tires.
Ison is said to have transported and dumped more than 200 scrap tires during 2017 at locations throughout the county, including the Paint Creek Lake Wildlife Area. He obtained the tires from a local junkyard that agreed to pay him for their disposal.
“This guy created a public safety hazard, trashed the public’s land and then forced the public to foot the bill to clean up his mess,” Yost said. “This is where the rubber meets the road.”
In one case, tires he discarded on a Paint Township roadway disabled a school bus that was transporting children, causing them to arrive late for school.
Prior to his sentencing, Ison paid restitution of $730 to the local solid waste district for the cleanup costs.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Environmental Enforcement Unit in partnership with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife. Attorneys from Yost’s Environmental Enforcement Section prosecuted the case.