Town transfer station now open to nonresidents

CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. >> The Town Board recently approved a change to the town code that allows non-town-residents to use the transfer station with a permit priced at $150 per year.

The transfer station at 217 Vischer Ferry Road is one of four operated by Saratoga County. Currently, anyone wishing to drop off recyclables can use the transfer station free of charge and without a permit. The recyclables include cans, bottles, newspapers, and appliances.

However, town residents with a permit are the only ones allowed to drop off bagged garbage and yard waste. On Monday the board opened both of those areas to anyone who’s willing to pay the $150 annual permit fee.

The move had much to do with economics.

The town receives $35,000 annually from Saratoga County for the use of the transfer station space for recyclables but must pay out of its own budget to have the garbage removed. With the number of resident permits issued in the last few years decreasing, and the number of regular permit holders reaching senior status, and thus a reduced rate, Supervisor Philip Barrett looked for ways to sustain the service without digging deeper into town coffers.

“We once had more than 4,000 permits, but the numbers have been dropping over the last several years,” he said at Monday’s meeting. “I don’t understand the reason why. Tonight what we’re considering is to expand the opportunity for people who do not live in Clifton Park to purchase a permit to use all the services at the transfer station.”

Town residents can purchase a full-year permit for $90 starting each January. A senior permit can be had for $45 for the year. There are also pro-rated rates for the resident permits as the year goes on.

Getting rid of one’s garbage and recyclables is not cheap, but Barrett made the point that getting an annual permit with the town is the least expensive way for someone to accomplish that job.

Disposing of household waste is becoming more expensive for everyone, including municipalities. Where Saratoga County once paid $150,000 a year to get rid of all the recyclables collected at its four transfer stations, Barrett said it now pays $350,000 a year.

In addition to revenue from the sale of the permits and the $35,000 it collects from the county, the town also receives $60,000 a year from County Waste and Recycling from a lease it has with the company for a mulch operation it runs at the transfer station site. One of the perks of that lease is the free, curbside, removal of all homeowner yard waste for town residents.

Earlier this spring the Town Board agreed to allow commercial businesses located in town or businesses whose owner lives in town the opportunity to purchase a transfer station permit for $250 a year. The board capped the number of those permits available at 20.

Despite all that income, including the money saved from the solar array on top of the capped landfill, the town still spent roughly $140,000 in 2017 (the latest year for which figures were available) subsidizing the cost of removing the garbage collected at the transfer station.

Before the Town Board could vote on the measure to amend the code at Monday’s meeting, a public hearing was held. One person spoke at the hearing, town resident Jim Baisley.

Baisley, who attends many Town Board meetings and watches the board’s actions closely, questioned why anyone living beyond the town’s boundaries would want to get a permit and then drive to town to dispose of it. He put the focus of the amendment to the code on yard waste.

“This will allow someone to bring brush and leaves to the transfer station to add to the [private company’s mulch output],” he said. “For the life of me, I couldn’t believe why anybody would want to come from someplace outside of Clifton Park to bring their garbage here. That doesn’t make sense, but what does make sense is to give him more product down there to make into mulch.”

Barrett said he had no idea how many people would take advantage of the change to the code.

“We have no way of telling how many people will take us up on this. If someone wants to bring their yard waste or garbage and if they have a transfer station permit, they are more than willing to do that,” he said.