By Doug La Rocque
The Rock Cuts on the Hoosic River in Hoosick, along Route 22 just south of the Wysocki Farm, has been a popular place for fishing, canoeing, swimming and picnics for years, but lately, it has become all too popular a place to drop garbage as well. 107th District Assemblyman Jake Ashby joined Rensselaer County Legislators Jeff Wysocki, Bruce Patire and Ken Herrington, as well as Town of Hoosick Supervisor Mark Surdam and Highway Superintendent Bill Shiland and some other volunteers Monday, July 16, to help clean up the site, and discuss how to best to rectify the problem.
Photo by Doug La Rocque
Legislator Patire was the first to arrive, and he told The Eastwick Press he found all sorts of broken glass from beer and liquor bottles, cans, raw and burnt garbage, as well as many dirty diapers and even a discarded tent.
Legislator Wysocki also expressed concern about the garbage washing downstream during heavy rains, sometimes even into his fields. The site is prone to flooding. The area is owned by New York State, and officials from both the Departments of Environmental Conservation and Transportation were invited to attended the cleanup and discussion, but for various reasons were unable to attend. Assemblyman Ashby was none too happy about that, and promised to make calls to the appropriate people in those agencies that very day.
Legislator Wysocki indicates a regional administrator with DEC has since reached out to him to help remedy the problem. Discussions on how to deal with the problem ranged from completely closing off the area, which no one was really in favor of, to limiting it to fishing and boating access only.
Placing refuse collection barrels on the site was also brought up, but who would empty them was the question. The three county lawmakers promised to see what the legislature might be able to do about the problem, as well as Assemblyman Ashby’s promise to engage the appropriate state agencies.
Supervisor Surdam welcomed whatever help he could get before someone gets hurt or sick. The general consensus was, the opportunity for many to enjoy such a place of natural beauty, was being ruined by some irresponsible and careless people.