MOREAU — Just hours before Tuesday’s Town Board meeting, Supervisor Todd Kusnierz added a resolution to allow Twin Bridges Waste and Recycling to buy three lots in Moreau Industrial Park.
The move, which residents and at least one board member said the supervisor slipped in three hours before the 7 p.m. meeting, is further raising fears that the town is paving the way for the controversial Saratoga Biochar Solutions, a plant that will convert solid waste into fertilizer. Residents have been fighting to keep the facility out of the industrial park for more than a year.
“(Kusnierz) jammed it through,” said Councilman John Donohue, the board’s only Democrat and the only one to vote against the resolution. “He had the SEQR all set. The resolution all set. Bim, bam boom. That is how he does business. He doesn’t communicate with anyone.”
At the meeting, Kusnierz said that Twin Bridges will buy plots on Farnan Road and Electric Drive for $725,000. As part of the resolution, the Town Board immediately read through and approved the state’s environmental quality review. The supervisor made no mention that Casella Waste System on June 9 made a $219 million purchase agreement with Twin Bridges. Nor did he mention that Casella, according to Saratoga Biochar CEO Ray Apy, is contracted to truck 235,200 tons of sewage annually through residential neighborhoods to the facility.
On Wednesday, residents said they will fight the sale by collecting signatures for a permissive referendum.
“I’m not happy,” resident and former Town Board member Gina Leclair said. “Our supervisor is looking out for other people’s interest, not the communities. He got elected to serve. We will do everything we can to fight it.”
Leclair said many of the homes in the area near the industrial park are close to the roads, which she said can’t take heavy truck traffic. Residents have also expressed…
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