Cunningham looks for change in the wind at the landfill

By DAVID HULSE

MONTICELLO, NY — The management of Sullivan County’s solid waste in the future will depend on the facilities the county employs but, according to Chris Cunningham, “Clearly, there are going to be changes.”

The Sullivan County Legislative Chair said he’s already spoken to County Manager Dan Briggs and Briggs has been clear with the staff that “changes are going to be a part of the future, when they’re appropriate and to the advantage of the taxpayers.” That “can and should be seen as a positive,” he said.

Cunningham would not say that a management change would remove the landfill from the county’s Division of Public Works, but said, “Clearly, it could.”

Noting that there has been “a lot of discussion,” about the landfill lately, Cunningham said issues of management, efficiency, expansion and the tipping fee schedule would be coming to a head in August when consultant Stephen Lynch completes his evaluation of the county’s solid waste operation.

Cunningham said he would either call a special meeting or air Lynch’s report at the Public Works Committee.

An increase in the $55-per-ton tipping fee was recommended to offset lost waste-importation revenues in June, but commercial carters complained and the legislature has not acted. Some out-of-county carters, who formerly contracted space at about $40 per ton, have continued to use the landfill after their contracts ended, because tipping in Monticello remains more economical than long-distance hauling to more distant landfills.

Critics say that the legislature’s failure to act quickly to increase the tipping fee in the summer has further reduced landfill resources and passed the costs on to year-round residents.

Late last month county staff met with the carters, who presented reasonable suggestions about recycling and “other issues we’re looking at.”

With Lynch’s findings, Cunningham said that “I sense that there will be movement as we’ve discussed in past.”

In the past, staff recommended a base tipping-fee increase to $75 per ton and a new $125 per ton charge for construction and demolition (C&D) debris. “We wanted to give the haulers and people some notice,” Cunningham said.

Just how the county’s overall system may change or what Lynch will recommend remains in question. Cunningham said several alternatives are in play, including ceding the operation to a private operator (“We’re going to look and see what they have to offer”) and creation of solid waste districts that would allow some control on the incoming waste stream (“The legal staff is into the structure of accomplishing that.”).

With the delay in the state’s permitting of the landfill’s cell six, Sullivan also will come close to expending remaining landfill space before the cell is completed, and will likely face the same problems as it attempts to gain a permit for the larger phase two expansion.

“We’re trying to get the timelines to run together and staff is confident that we will have time and space,” he said.

While phase two could provoke another round of legal challenges, Cunningham said the legislature is poised to move on it. “The landfill is an asset and we’re not going to write it off. It might be a very valuable asset for the county,” he said.

Cunningham said that the public will get to hear the outcome before decisions are made. “We’ll have that discussion when the consultant finishes his review. I’ve said that it will be public,” Cunningham said.