Trash agency to vote on interim executive director

Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency board members have scheduled a vote on naming agency Comptroller Tim DeGraff as interim executive director.

The session is scheduled for noon Tuesday in the agency office at 999 Flatbush Ave. There will also be a phone conference system available, with information available on the agency web site at ucrra.org.

DeGraff, who as been with the agency since January 2007, is in the second year of a five-year contract that pays $90,000 annually.

DeGraff said he expects it will be a smooth transition because the personnel remains in place.

“The people who do all the grunt work are still here,” he said. “(Operations Manager) Charlie Whitaker is the one who when the (state) environmental monitor comes on site they go to him. He’s the one who developed all the compliance books and made sure all that stuff was in order.”

The board will be seeking to replace former Executive Director Tim Rose, who stepped down to take an engineering position with the county Health Department.

Rose joined the county

Resource Recovery Agency in February 2010 as operations director and became a stabilizing administrative force after former Executive Director Michael Bemis was fired in October 2010 amid accusations of mismanagement and harassment of employees.

DeGraff said the agency will also remain fiscally on course.

“I’m knee-deep in the budget right now,” he said. “Even with Tim Rose departing, I’m still the one doing the budget and I still know what needs to be done from that aspect.”

Among significant issues facing the agency is getting county Legislature approval for a 10-year solid waste management plan, with some lawmakers unhappy with a 10-page section of the document that outlines how a “zero waste” initiative would move forward.

However, earlier this year, agency officials did state approval for the longterm management plan, which took two years to write after a 2011 draft had taken seven years for the state to review. Board members decided to create an entirely new document that would encompass studies for a local landfill, transportation methods for shipping solid waste, and whether alternative forms of disposal are feasible.