A New Committee Of Concern You're Probably Not Aware Of

Sometime early this year or late last year, due to concerns about rising deficits at the Columbia County Solid Waste Department, a group of 9 Public Works Committe members (possibly all of them) was formed to get costs and deficits under control at CCSWD.  The committee is called the Solid Waste Workgroup and as far as I can tell they have only met once, in May of this year. Things are so bad at CCSWD (a "$900,000 deficit" in May) that the committee is looking into the idea of creating an enterprise fund, a concept I am unfamiliar with.  But the enterprise fund idea was, according to minutes of the May meeting, "flagged by auditors."  Basically, I think, the CCSWD is unable to manage itself properly and the Solid Waste Workgroup is looking at all alternatives to right the ship.  The CCSWD, as we know it, may have to be completely revamped or taken over by a private entity.  I'm not kidding about the latter.

I urge anyone with an interest in how Columbia County government operates, as well as interest in the future of solid waste management in Hudson and Columbia County, to read the minutes from May's meeting:  CCSWD

Of course, the City of Hudson DPW relies on the Columbia County Solid Waste Department to ultimately take all of our waste far away.  Trash and recycling disposal costs have risen sharply over the past few years, and as HUDseen has pointed out in the past, the cost to DPW to drop recycling off at the CCSWD's transfer station in Greenport is the same as dropping garbage off.  This is insane and only indicates that the CCSWD is not doing its job properly.  Something is wrong at CCSWD and has been for far too long.  The question is: is the Solid Waste Workgroup up to the task it was formed to deal with?  It seems to me that the people comprising the Workgroup allowed things at CCSWD to spiral out of control in the first place.  (The CCSWD Director reports monthly in person to the Public Works Committee.)

For more on trouble at CCSWD, read this HUDseen article from nearly two years ago: Distinctions