Norlite flips on giving $100K

Canceled donation affects Cohoes’ crime-fighting plan

Norlite’s parent company has told the city it will not make a $100,000 donation for public safety expenses — a decision that will affect a city crime-fighting plan.

Mayor Bill Keeler said no explanation was offered in a terse email sent to the city’s lawyer by an attorney for Tradebe Environmental Services, which owns Norlite. The cut will delay the city’s installation of surveillance cameras at key intersections. The $100,000 was previously provided to the city every year before the pandemic; the company said COVID-19 was to blame for the 2020 nonpayment.

It turns out that a Jan. 26 bill from the city to Norlite for $3,497 to replace hoses, a nozzle, and firefighting foam and to pay for 20 hours of firefighters’ overtime to extinguish a chemical fire on Jan. 18 was a reason the company canceled the donation it had asked the city to accept.

Norlite came to the city with a proposal to resume the $100,000 payment this year. That was two weeks after the company was billed. The Common Council approved the contract

for the payments in February.

“It’s disappointing, especially after it was announced with great fanfare,” Keeler said Tuesday of the $100,000 that was expected in 2021.

The March 19 email from Tradebe attorney Kirstin Etela to Cohoes Corporation Counsel Brian Kremer said, “Unfortunately, a culmination of recent events has led us to conclude that we are not in a position to proceed with the Host Community Benefit Agreement at this time. Please call me if you would like additional information regarding this decision.”

In a follow-up to a Times Union request for comment, Tradebe issued a statement that mentioned being billed by the city for the fire department’s response.

“These costs include a bill the City of Cohoes sent Norlite for the fire department responding in January to a fire at our facility, an unprecedented occurrence in our experience.

The costs also include the significant expense Norlite will have to absorb for the disposal of soil contaminated with firefighting foam that the city fire department used on our property. The firefighting foam contained the chemical PFAS,” the statement issued Tuesday night said.

Cohoes sent a copy of the $3,497 bill to the Times Union Wednesday afternoon. The company had not indicated how much the bill was when it issued its release.

The company said it has “chosen to defer” the payment. It said, “For these and other business reasons, Norlite wishes to have further discussions with the city about the request for a $100,000 donation.”

“There are currently so many negative issues involving Norlite —noise complaints, chemical odor complaints, blasting complaints, fugitive dust complaints, mercury emission concerns, etc. — that we had hoped the promised donation was a positive first step by a company trying to become a better neighbor. Instead, as in years past, the promised donation isn’t

likely to materialize and I have no intention of pursuing it further,” Keeler said Wednesday.

The burning of Pfascontaining firefighting foam at Norlite’s aggregate mill plant has been an environmental concern for the city and residents living near the facility, leading the state Department of Environmental

Conservation to investigate. The Times Union reported Tuesday that Norlite had burned more PFAS for a longer period of time than first believed, according to federal documents.

The $100,000 would have covered the $98,872 cost of installing surveillance cameras and upgrading computer

equipment connected to operating them and existing cameras on Remsen Street.

Keeler said the city would pursue grant funding to cover the installation expense. The mayor said it’s an important public safety initiative that the city will pursue despite losing the Norlite funds.