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Massena trustees want DPW super to find new dumping spot for brush, leaves

Posted 9/21/17

By ANDY GARDNER MASSENA -- The village board on Tuesday tasked the DPW superintendent with coming up with a new place for village residents to take their leaves and brush trimmings. Right now, people …

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Massena trustees want DPW super to find new dumping spot for brush, leaves

Posted

By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- The village board on Tuesday tasked the DPW superintendent with coming up with a new place for village residents to take their leaves and brush trimmings.

Right now, people can bring them to the old DPW on South Main Street, but it is being sold to St. Lawrence Soyway. Village officials said they are hopeful the sale will close sometime this fall.

Right now, there is a 16-acre lot on South Raquette Road that DPW Superintendent Hassan Fayad has been told to find a way for people to use that to dump their vegetation waste.

Mayor Tim Currier told Fayad to find a way so the piles don't create an eyesore to people living within site of the area.

Currier was frustrated at the village's sluggish pace in finding a new site for people to take their leaves.

“I’d like to find a solution … I’ve asked this body to come up with a solution to solve the leaf and brush problem … Nobody wants it here, somebody doesn’t want it there. There’s no easy solution," he said. "I’m tired of wasting my time bringing options and solutions and it just being in a circle. I don’t mean that it’s a waste of my time, but it’s a continual thing here.

“I’ll do my job and find a solution … We need a solution, or we’re going to continue to be in limbo and a number of people in this community are growing frustrated because there isn’t a solution.”

Trustee Francis Carvel was also disappointed at how the problem has been handled thusfar.

“The whole thing with brush and leaves and everything else is it doesn’t belong inside the village," he said, adding that he does not think the village should be using the new DPW site on Urban Drive for storage. “What’s going on down there is not right … We have a lot of land … there’s no reason to go down into their backyards and disturb those people."

Deputy Mayor Matt Lebire said he thinks the South Raquette lot is their only option at this point.

“In light of hearing no other specific properties, I don’t see a choice," he said. “My preference would be to move forward with that idea.”

There had been talk of leasing or buying a lot from the Town of Massena on Pontoon Bridge Road, but that isn't going to happen.

“The minute that discussion went public we started to get calls from people who live in that area," Currier said.

“It’s not our property and the owners of that property may have intentions and plans for it," Lebire said.