by Alex Brooks
The Grafton Town Board held a workshop on Saturday, April 26, to consider sharing the Town transfer station with Petersburgh. Grafton Town Supervisor Frank Higgins began the meeting by saying the question before the Board was whether the Town of Grafton would like to make a proposal to the Town of Petersburgh which would allow Petersburgh to use the Grafton transfer station for a fee. The merits of this question were never really discussed at this meeting, which consisted mostly of bickering on ancillary topics.
[private]Councilman Rick Ungaro seemed to have considered the question and made up his mind against it in advance of the meeting, but it was not made clear how he came to this conclusion. Ungaro seemed to feel there was a danger that sharing the transfer station with Petersburgh would increase Grafton’s garbage costs. But since Petersburgh Supervisor Krahforst said Petersburgh is paying $39,000 a year to get rid of its garbage now and is willing to consider any proposal that would reduce that cost, there seems to be a lot of room to make a proposal that would reduce Grafton’s cost. Toward the end of the meeting Ungaro summed up his thinking by saying in an exasperated tone that he doesn’t want to put a giant garbage facility in the middle of town, but of course there is already a garbage facility in the middle of town. Ungaro seems to believe that the current configuration of the transfer station could not handle the additional traffic from Petersburgh without creating traffic problems, vermin problems and aesthetic problems and that it is either not possible or not desirable to make improvements or modifications to solve these problems.
Ungaro began by saying the Grafton transfer station has no current registration with DEC. Supervisor Higgins said it can be registered with a simple one page form, which he is ready to send out. He believes DEC lost Grafton’s paperwork when they moved their headquarters, and that’s why they have no records. Councilwoman Barbara Messenger said, “We send a report to DEC every year about the recycling center.”
Marie Claus said, “We are not in compliance,” and Higgins replied, “I don’t think that’s accurate.”
Ungaro and Higgins then bickered for a while about what paperwork had been filed or should have been filed. When Higgins tried to bring the meeting back on topic, Ungaro said there’s no reason Petersburgh can’t set up its own transfer station. Petersburgh Supervisor Siegfried Krahforst said he knows that and setting up their own station is one of the options that Petersburgh is considering. But Petersburgh is also interested in considering a proposal to share Grafton’s station.
Higgins then sketched out his idea for how a sharing arrangement could work. He suggested that Petersburgh pay half of all Grafton’s transfer station costs and that Petersburgh residents buy their permits from Petersburgh but pay their bag fees and disposal fees to Grafton.
According to figures supplied by Ungaro, Grafton’s total cost for the transfer station in 2012 was about $41,000, and it collected over $19,000 in revenue. If, as Ungaro suggested, adding Petersburgh increased both costs and revenues by 50%, Petersburgh would pay $30,000 minus whatever revenue it got from selling permits, and Grafton would pay $30,000 and would have $27,000 in revenue. Higgins confined himself to saying that the station currently costs Grafton about $22,000 per year and that the Town would save at least $12,000 annually if Petersburgh paid half the costs because the cost of the attendant’s salary is over $24,000.
However, before anyone could begin discussing such hypothetical economics, former Town Supervisor Tyler Sawyer, in the audience, jumped in to say he is concerned about safety because of the additional traffic turning into the Town Hall yard from Route 2. He also said he thought Petersburgh should make a proposal rather than asking Grafton to formulate a proposal, suggesting that formulating a proposal will cost Grafton money. Higgins replied that it won’t cost anything unless you get to the point of having the attorney write up a formal agreement. Ungaro then pointed out that since Sal Ferlazzo is the Town Attorney for both towns, he can’t negotiate an agreement with himself, so one of the towns would have to get another attorney for this matter. Ungaro also said the Town should have a “master plan” addressing traffic impacts of sharing with Petersburgh. They then went back to bickering about who put what paper in whose mailbox and when.
Councilpersons Mike Crandall and Marie Claus made it clear they agreed with Ungaro and didn’t want to offer a proposal for sharing the transfer station with Petersburgh.
The meeting was clearly upsetting to a number of the people involved. Ungaro, by the end of the meeting, was greatly agitated and argued vehemently. Petersburgh Supervisor Krahforst left before the meeting was over, sarcastically apologizing for setting off these arguments. For his part, Higgins sent this statement after the meeting in an email communication, “Saturday was a sad day in Grafton, and I was embarrassed by the actions of the three Town Board members who lack the vision required to aid in financially strengthening the towns of Petersburgh and Grafton. They failed to even explore the opportunity to combine our recycling efforts. Coming to the workshop with nothing but negative thoughts and depriving the taxpayers of the opportunity to provide meaningful cost reductions to both towns was truly shameful. Failing to explore and enter into shared service agreements such as this one increases the danger of our smaller towns being swallowed up by our larger surrounding towns. All one has to do is read some of the State websites to see that this is the future the State administration has planned for us. Once this occurs our voice in local matters will become greatly diluted. I apologize to Supervisor Krahforst for the shameful actions and treatment afforded him by our three Board members and several members of the audience and to the taxpayers of Petersburgh for our failure to aid them in reducing their expenses.”[/private]