Why Does It Feel Like Columbia County Is Stuck in The 20th Century? OR "The Path of Civilization Is Lined With Tin Cans!" (E. Hubbard)

 

Back to one of HUDseen's favorite topics: garbage. And streets. And safety. And bicycling. And how Hudson City Hall and officials in Columbia County can't seem to pay attention to important details. You know, all the fun stuff to read and complain about!

Let's begin in Oswego County, up in the north country along the shores of Lake Ontario. Anyone who shows up in a vehiclwith a load of uncovered solid waste to a county-operated garbage transfer station up there will be assessed a $50 fine. Scalemaster: "Sorry, you forgot to cover your load, pay $50 before advancing." Also, if the Oswego County Sheriff's office were to come across a vehicle like the one featured in the lead picture with the uncovered and unsecured waste on State Street, they would issue the driver the same $50 fine and violation for uncovered waste. Oswego County has decided that it is in their best interest, and in the best interest of the people and roadways of the county, to enforce a law that is not easily or often enforced by NY State DEC officers.

At Tompkins County's only transfer station, located in the City of Ithaca, an untarped load of waste will get you a $10 fine the first time you show up and $20 the next time. The message is clear: Go home and tarp your load or pay the fine right now before you proceed past the scale. What you are doing is unacceptable to us and a violation of State law at this location and on nearby roadways. Next time show 
up with your waste covered or pay another fine.

Sounds sensible, doesn't it? Sounds simple enough to make happen, doesn't it?

Then why the hell isn't the same thing happening here in Columbia County, specifically courtesy of the CC Solid Waste Department? Is it because we don't care about safe and clean roads? We don't care about being smart and respectful? Apparently, Oswego County and Tompkins County, among others, both understand and care about what we do not care about here in Columbia County.  Everyone has garbage, after all, and it all needs to get to a landfill somehow.  Garbage in Oswego or Tompkins County is no different than ours here in Columbia County, is it?

Several years ago, during a Columbia County Public Works meeting at 401 State Street, I asked then CCSWD Director, Jolene Race, why her department allows uncovered waste to be brought to their transfer stations (particularly the main station in Greenport on Newman Road), since it is in violation of NY State law. She looked insulted and annoyed that I would ask such a question. She and Public Works Chairman, Ron Knott, both told me that the law was for DEC to enforce and that the county couldn't do anything about it.  I informed them that Tompkins County assesses fines at their transfer station for uncovered loads that arrive at the scale.  Jolene shot back, "Good for them.  If it's so wonderful in Ithaca, why don't you move there?"  (I figured it wasn't worth telling hJolene that I had spent 8 years living there in the 1990's.)

That thinking, as difficult as it is to fathom, is still alive and well around these parts in the year 2025.  "Trash headed to our transfer stations falling and blowing out of the back of a pickup truck onto city streets and county roadways?  What's the big deal?  Let the Hudson DPW street sweeper and DEC deal with it."

When will THE COUNTY enforce and prevent 
this kind of reckless behavior?  This driver should
have been pulled over by a city or county 
cop and given a ticket of some sort.  Certainly he 
or she should not be allowed access to the 
trash dump without being issued a fine first.

I took the pictures of the uncovered load of wood waste in the pickup truck headed east on State Street this past Monday morning. Apparently, in the minds of those at CCSWD and elsewhere at both the city and county level, a load of waste like that is perfectly acceptable and not a violation of any law or norm.  It's certainly not considered a preventable or enforceable problem.  It doesn't matter whether or not any of that wood falls off on the way to one of the county's nine transfer stations, even along one of our many State Routes, including all the 9's, 66 and 23, which runs leads to Newman Road!  How many nails and screws do you suppose were sticking out of all those pieces of wood ready to fall off the back of the truck in an instant after being jolted by even the slightest pothole or sunken manhole cover, or even just blown off in a stiff wind?  Would that driver face any consequences if a few (or several) of those pieces of wood fell onto a Hudson street on their way to Newman Road in the Town of Greenport to a Columbia County-owned and operated facility?  This issue affects EVERYONE and all the levels of government you can think of -- something OSWEGO COUNTY AND TOMPKINS COUNTY likely understand all too well.

How about if one or two of those sticks of wood came flying off the truck in a stiff wind while the vehicle was moving 20 or 30 miles per hour up Columbia Street, striking a nearby bicyclist or pedestrian in the face with a nail or screw or three sticking out of the airborne projectile wooden stick, also known as garbage?  Would it be called "an accident"?  Would it be considered unpreventable? Crazier, more fucked up, stupid, regrettable and preventable random shit have put people in the hospital or morgue when others are allowed to do dangerous things that they may or may not know are wrong or dangerous. How about we substitute that load of uncovered wood (or any uncovered and unsecured load of garbage headed to the transfer station on Newman Road) for a load of unbagged, loose and unsecured glass bottles and jars, also with the cab door down?  Or how about large, torn, unsecured sacks of rusty, old nails and screws? Why not?  What's the difference?  It's all waste headed to the dump!  In Hudson and the rest of Columbia County, these scenarios are perfectly acceptable and even encouraged.  "Show up with your waste however you can get it here easiest and quickest, we don't care what it looks like or how loose it all is or how much of it falls on the roads along the way.  Just get here before the scale closes!  Tarps are for sissies!"

How on earth is this acceptable on any 
roadway in Columbia County, but
especially in downtown Hudson, also
known as the COUNTY SEAT?

A competent and caring Hudson City Manager would find this unacceptable on a city street and at least try to do something about it, like petitioning Matt Murrell and the CCSWD TO ENFORCE THE STATE LAW THAT OTHER COUNTIES HAVE FOUND A WAY TO DO THEMSELVES! But our mayor? What the fuck does he do about anything that has nothing to do with Facebook? He probably finds these pictures amusing.  Ha ha!  So very funny. 

You mean I ran over a piece of wood with screws sticking up while bicycling in the dark on State Street and both my tire tubes were blown?  And that piece of wood came to be in the street because, unbeknownst to anyone, it fell from an unsecured and uncovered pile of demolition debris in the back of a wide-open pickup truck hours earlier as it was headed to the COUNTY GARBAGE TRANSFER STATION JUST OUTSIDE OF HUDSON?  Are you telling me that I have to remove that wood lying in the street that ruined my bike tires -- and my day!!! -- and I should throw it in a nearby dumpster so that someone else doesn't also have their day ruined by it, possibly someone driving a car or truck?  You have allowed someone bringing trash to your facility just outside of Hudson to transport it in such a manner that it could very easily fall into the street?  And you allow anyone to do that?  And if waste headed your way does make it onto a street, or Newman Road, it's not your problem?  It's someone else's problem then, for someone who just happens to notice it or run over it?

Isn't that exactly what Columbia County officials and the Hudson Mayor's office are telling us by their inaction, that this is all acceptable and not a problem?  

Loose loads that may or may not have produced litter, 
even dangerous litter, are accepted here.  Shouldn't there
be a sign indicating this fact?

Litter often lines Newman Road, like this old
plank of wood that likely fell off of a truck of
some sort.  No nails or screws this time.

Litter often lines the outside of the fence
 of Hudson's cemetery -- on Greenport property,
though plenty of it gets through the fence, of course.

Yes, Bill, I'm afraid that's what we are saying.  So pick up the stray wood in your way and get over it.  It's your problem, not ours.  It never has been our problem, and it never will be our problem.  Go cry to someone else about garbage falling out of vehicles onto city streets that doesn't make it to its intended destination one mile away.  Who do you think we are, the garbage and litter police?  Call DEC if you have a problem with our attitude, maybe they can assist you with your problem.

Hmmm... why is there so much litter in Hudson and why are our streets in such rough shape?  Because that's just that way it's always been and always will be!  Move to Ithaca if you don't like it, we hear they have great sidewalks and very little litter there! (It's true! It's true!)