Trash agency board delays appointments
TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. >> The Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency board is holding off appointing a chairperson and other officers until the county Legislature fills two seats on the five-member board.
The board decided this week to wait at least a month, noting that the terms of board members Katherine Beinkafner and Charles Landi lapsed at the end of December.
“We shouldn’t reorganize our officers until we have the board we’re going to have for the rest of the year,” Beinkafner said.
Landi agreed to the delay but said he was not enthusiastic about waiting. He said different people could be designated for positions if he and Beinkafner are not reappointed.
“In the past, we did go ahead, and [if] there was a change ... we just did a re-evaluation,” Landi said.
Resource Recovery Agency board members whose terms have expired can remain on the board until the Legislature reappoints them or designates replacements. Lawmakers are scheduled to make appointments to the agency board at their Feb. 18 meeting, but they have not provided the names of any candidates for the seats.
Beinkafner, who currently serves as the board’s vice chairwoman, was appointed to the board after David Gordon stepped down last year. She previously was on the board from 2008 to 2010.
Landi, a former Kingston alderman, was appointed in 2012 and has been a vocal advocate of finding a landfill site within the county.
The board’s current chairman, Fred Wadnola, agreed to delay voting on a slate of officers, which also includes a vice chairman, treasurer and secretary.
Wadnola, a retired educator, is a former Ulster County legislator who served for two years as the Legislature’s chairman. He also is a former town of Ulster supervisor.