3-county trash plan to be unveiled next week

Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency officials say a report is due out next week on how Ulster, Greene and Sullivan counties can work together via a quasigovernmental agency to deal with solid waste disposal in the region.

At an agency board meeting Wednesday, officials said three meetings are planned to give legislators in the three counties a detailed presentation on a consultant’s findings.

“They’re making revisions to the draft report,” Executive Director Tim Rose said. “There were some financial discrepancies that they had to correct. There was some facility information in there that was not accurate, so they addressed those after talking with the three counties and passing their first draft around.”

Presentations to lawmakers are scheduled for 10 a.m. March 8 in Sullivan County, 6 p.m. March 12 in Greene County, and 6 p.m. March 13 in Ulster County.

Board members of the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency in August approved a $39,700 contract with Middletownbased Cornerstone Engineering and Land Surveying, saying they would not ask for the other counties to contribute toward the cost.

Board members have promised that the entire report will be made public in advance of the presentation, but continue to withhold the draft version.

“We are eager obviously to see this move forward,” board member David Gordon said. “We’re eager to get the feasibility study out. We will get a copy to the Freeman as soon as we get it.”

Gordon added that the “minute we get it, it is publicly available.”

Requests for a copy of the draft report have been denied by agency officials, who argued it could be withheld “under section 87(2)g of the Public Officers Law since it is not a final agency policy or determination.”

State Committee on Open Government Executive Director Robert Freeman, however, argued that the denial is based on a misunderstanding of that section of law. He said any recommendation in the report can be withheld, but information about costs, number of personnel, location of properties, and the amount of solid waste generated is required to be made public.

“The Court of Appeals has said that statistical and factual information means not only numbers that appear graphically or in rows or whatever on a printed page, but rather factual information,” he said.

“We are eager obviously to see this move forward. We’re eager to get the feasibility study out. We will get a copy to the Freeman as soon as we get it.” — David Gordon, board member