Residents who went down hill from illegal dumping on Church Road are calling for action again with the help of the Woodstock Environmental Commission.
At the town board meeting on 18 October, WEC member Erin Moran said, “A lot of the advances have just been stopped by (supervisor) Bill (McKenna) for lack of a better word.” .
“It’s been two years and we’ve been told that we’re going to have plans, and we have plans on the way.
Frank and Pam Aimee, who live at 56 Reynolds Lane, have borne the brunt of illegally dumped construction debris that has made them unable to drink the well water because of the contamination.
Vincent Conigliaro, owner of 10 Church Road, ordered a full load from hauler Joseph Karolys, who was in legal trouble for the project. He has since claimed that his wife Gina conspired with Carolis to dump contaminated stuffing on the property.
Karolys and Gina Conigliaro were each convicted of illegal dumping.
The modest fines of $1,500 each were a far cry from the $300,000 they faced, but McKenna said at the time that court action was needed to start cleanup and take enforcement action against property owners. Stated.
Vincent Conigliaro escaped fine after blaming his wife.
Things got worse for Eighmeys when a badly constructed berm collapsed in a summer storm in 2020, sending debris tumbling down into Eighmeys’ backyard and walkway.
“Their water is no longer safe to drink. They expected to confront McKenna, but he had to leave due to his family’s emergency.
“The plan that’s laid out before you is that Vince hires someone to sift through the dirt and take out the bad stuff. You can’t see arsenic, asbestos, or heavy metals. First, it’s your eyes.” Secondly, if you’re actually going to do such a ridiculous, insultingly poor job, at least someone qualified, an environmental expert, nobody on this committee, soil It’s not Bill[Mckenna]who sampled himself, it’s DEC who came back amazingly clean.”
McKenna replied.
“I don’t know what they expect from the town. You can’t put a gun to Vince’s head and demand he start digging dirt,” McKenna said of Moran’s comments. “We won the lawsuit so we can turn around and force him to clean up and charge him…but you can’t bulldoze in there and start cleaning up. To get permission to get in there.” must be ordered by the court.”
John Conrad, an environmental consultant employed by the Aimees, reminded the Town Board that a resolution was passed two years ago calling for regular inspections of the Aimees’ wells and filling material.
“I think it’s pretty obvious why that’s important. We need to figure out if their wells were affected as early as possible and if their testing program was supposed to do that.” Conrad said, “The solution was to test the filler material itself in the dump. I think it’s pretty obvious why you’d want to do that, for similar reasons. What’s there, what contaminants are there?” , wanting to characterize what groundwater may contain. “The cleanup itself really needs to move forward. We need to end the delays, but we can’t move forward without a plan. Let me suggest to the board and I will write to you about this in the next few weeks.” Having said that, if you’re focused on that first step and it’s a plan, I think that’s really great…a strong step.”
In June, Conigliaro contractor David Kolts proposed a plan to remove all material and dispose of it in a landfill certified to treat waste, but the $500,000 cost was deemed too high. was made.
Dennis Larios, the town’s technician, recently met with Conigliaro and the Colts, McKenna asked about the progress.
“Now what they’re proposing is to remove the hills facing Amy’s, sift them down, clear them of construction debris,” McKenna said. We graded the existing landfill and tested the soil before we started backfilling.”
McKenna believes that in the very near future Kolts will apply for a reclamation and slope permit, install a silt fence to protect the area, and begin testing.
“It’s probably the only thing that’s going to happen this winter. It’s going to be a bigger mess than it is now because it’s going to be a mess there when we get bad weather,” McKenna said.
McKenna: Everyone keeps blaming their boss
If Conigliaro cleanup work is not satisfactory, the town can hire contractors to do the work and add the cost to the tax. If Conigliaro defaults on his taxes, the county will make an entire town and recoup the money in a foreclosure sale.
“Everyone keeps accusing the supervisor of limping. , I’m the one who went looking for the funds, and I had to fight for it every step of the way, you know my heart is bleeding for Aimee, they’re confused It is alive.”
The town board agreed to set up a capital fund for the cleanup, but did not agree to contribute $200,000 from the surplus funds.
“Frankly, they should have started the civil suit two years ago because they have a much stronger case base than we do.