Editor:

Last week in this newspaper, former Councilman Fuller requested an apology from me for what she called baseless and vindictive lawsuits. Ms. Fuller is mistaken to think that an apology is warranted. Those lawsuits, while related to the landfill, were focused on certain actions taken by the Town Board during a time when Fuller was a member. The Concerned Citizens of Sardinia (CCS) believed that the errors and omissions by that Board were serious enough to require court intervention.

Citizens have a right to expect that their elected officials act in an open and honest manner and follow all state and local laws and regulations in order to protect the health, safety,and welfare of all residents. When Board members have enough votes to adopt or “push through” controversial actions, it does not give them the right to take shortcuts or bypass required steps that they do not consider important or convenient. When Boards overstep, citizens have a right to demand accountability.

Few people enjoy going to court to seek remedies to disputes, but sometimes it is necessary. And that is very true in Sardinia. In the mid-1980s a citizens group needed court action to require that the Town Board enforce its own zoning related to mining at the landfill. In 1996 the NYS Court of Appeals upheld the Town’s right to zone-out new mining. A 53-acre mine on Johnson Road and the reactivation of a 100-acre mine on Rt. 39 both were stopped by court actions. The latter site is now the location of 10 beautiful new homes instead of an ongoing gravel mine.

After the Court of Appeals decision, it still took another 10 years for the courts to finally decide that Gernatt Asphalt had no right to mine the 400-acre Gable-Thomas site and furthermore, was not entitled to any compensation because it could not mine there. Unfortunately, the Town is again in court, challenging that its own Zoning Board of Appeals made serious errors in granting a controversial use variance to Gernatt allowing it to mine the Gable-Thomas site.

As of this coming January 1, none of the people that were responsible for the decisions challenged by CCS will still be members of the Sardinia Town Board. Therefore, CCS decided that it would terminate all remaining lawsuits against the Town if additional environmental protections could be implemented along with greater transparency and enhanced public access to landfill operational and regulatory information. Those objectives were achieved through a settlement agreement between CCS and Waste Management and through host agreement amendments negotiated by the Town’s landfill committee and Waste Management. During the period of settlement discussions, Waste Management, in a show of good faith, began to implement some of the provisions of the agreement.

Many will put their spin on recent events, or offer self-serving speculation as to motives. However, if you study the facts and official records, you will determine that CCS has been a consistent advocate for the health, safety and welfare of the people and environment of the Town of Sardinia.



John R. Schiener,

Sardinia