MONTICELLO, NY — The future of the Western Sullivan Transfer Station in the Town of Cochecton was a topic of discussion at a county meeting at the government center on September 8.

Ed McAndrew, commissioner of the Sullivan County Department of Public Works (DPW), told legislators that the county does not own that transfer station but leases it from the town. Also, the county pays $15,000 a year to the town for snow plowing services in the winter. McAndrew said the contract expires at the end of the year. He said he discussed with Town Supervisor Gary Maas that he thought the plowing fee was a bit high.

McAndrew explained that the cost to run this transfer station and the four others operated by the county had changed significantly when the county stopped using its own landfill and began the process of exporting municipal solid waste (MSW) and construction and demolition (C&D) debris to a facility in northern New York State.

Before the change, the county would keep the entire tipping fee for accepting MSW and C&D. Now the county charges $95 per ton to accept, and spends $75 per ton to export, changing the equation for the transfer stations. McAndrew said he did not have final figures yet, but he estimated the cost to the county to operate the transfer station is about $100,000 per year.

He said the station in Cochecton does not have a scale, so at the end of the year, it will no longer be able to accept C&D, which will mean accepting less overall tonnage, and it will also mean less revenue from the station.

McAndrew further said that all of the transfer stations are probably running similar losses and that he would be running the numbers in the future. He said the five transfer stations account for about 10 to 12% of the total tonnage that goes through the county system.

He brought this up now, because legislators will have to decide soon about the contract with the Town of Cocheton. He noted that the towns of Bethel and Neversink operate their own transfer stations and the county hauls the garbage for them.

Speaking specifically about the transfer station in Cochecton, Legislator Terri Ward wondered if people who used it would be willing to pay a “convenience fee” to help offset costs at the station.

Legislator Joe Perrello said, “We could do that maybe just hand the transfer station over to the [town]… let them man it, and we’ll haul the garbage.”

Ward said, “We should not be losing money on this.”

There was, however, general agreement among the legislators that none of them wants to close the transfer station.