Hauling company owner denies link to dumping case
TOWN OF ROCHESTER, N.Y.
» A Long Island sand and gravel hauling company owner is seeking to clear his name and that of his company, NYTAC Corp., in a controversy over the dumping of illegal construction and demolition material last summer on private property in Ulster County.
Four truck drivers who were arrested May 31 by state Department of Environmental Conservation investigators — Franklin De La Rosa, 50; Anthony Daniels, 21; Juan Cosme, 45, and James Spoto, 51 — pleaded guilty in August in Rochester Town Court and accepted fines of $1,500 apiece on town charges.
NYTAC owner Vito Fragola told Mid-Hudson News on Thursday that, despite claims that the drivers were his employees, that was not the case.
“These aren’t my drivers, these aren’t my trucks,” he said. “They weren’t told by this company to go there. NYTAC is a sand and gravel company. That’s all it is.
“I am trying to find out how my name got involved in this,” Fragola said. “I don’t get involved in illegal dumping.”
Fragola said he fired an employee who was involved in some “shady” activity. “I don’t know if he did something with them and then he tried to pin it on me since he doesn’t work here,” he said.
Fragola said he has never been to the Accord area and has no knowledge of April Van Heusen, the woman on whose property the construction and demolition material was dumped. He said he has tried to contact her with no success and has not received return calls from the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office.
District Attorney Holley Carnright and attorney Scott Russell, who was reported to be the lawyer for the four truck drivers, could not be reached for comment.
I had “zero, zero, zero to do with this,” Fragola said. He said lost a $30,000 job because of the negative publicity.
Regional state Department of Environmental Conservation Director Kelly Tuturro recently said the agency is investigating illegal dumping from Long Island to the Catskills. Because it is an ongoing investigation, she said she could not say anything further about the case.