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Garbage Gazette
COMBINED ISSUES!
April 1, 2006
March 18, 2006


Garbage Gazettte April 1 2006 by Jim Baker

THE HAZARDS OF HOUSHOLD
HAZARDOUS WASTE DAYS!

For years Putnam County's Health Department has held household
hazardous waste days. They can only handle 400 vehicles a day so they
require that you call them and be placed on their list. Twice a year they pick a parking lot and you can bring in almost anything labeled "Dangerous". But they have always been very kind to the KRC. They allow us to collect your HHHW and bring it to them in our big truck. Last year, they even started collecting electronics and increased collection days to three per year!!

It is not unusual for our DOH to be on  the cutting edge. They were among the  first to outlaw smoking in public  buildings. This year however, due to the  constraints of Mr. Bondi's proposed  budget, we are not certain what will  happen. The big question for our center  is: will they continue to allow us to bring  in our truckload of electronics & other  HHHW? We have been collecting  electronics in anticipation of the usual  set up. You can see our large pile over  by the white trailer! 

Electronics contain heavy metals and other dangerous chemicals increasingly found in our bodies. There is no way we will allow our collection to go into the garbage truck. We'll find a way to dispose of them properly. Meanwhile, if you'd like to let someone know your concern, contact your County Legislator:

THE TAKING OF BUILDING #4!!!
The County, while cutting back on funding of HHHW days, wants to vastly increase spending in Kent! The County has proposed taking over Building #4.  This presently unbuilt structure is the one our town had planned to be used as a community AND senior center for Kent residents. It would require low water intake, low septic output and minimal parking. The County proposes a two storey & two elevator building that would be open to all seniors everywhere... but only to seniors! It would also house the County Office of the Aging and include daily congregate meals, adult day care, a wellness center and various rooms for recreational activities & counseling.

We are requesting our Town Board hold a SEQRA review of the county proposal. The soil engineer had recommended only one storey buildings for this soil! We need an objective study of the obvious need for extra wells & expanded septic systems. We must ask ourselves if we want the need for additional parking to intrude into our "central commons"? The County building would be ideal in a shopping center. There it could share an existing sewage treatment plant, municipal water and great parking! We urge our town board to assume lead agency so that it will be Kent & not the County, judging the environmental & social impacts of these proposals for building #4.  
Contacts:

TERRY INTRARY, LEGISLATOR
40 GLENEIDA AVENUE
CARMEL.NY 10512
225-3641 ext 252 or 253
Fax 225-0715

Environmental Health Department
Geneva Road Brewster NY
278-6085

Garbage Gazettte March 18 2006

THE INDIGNANT ON
Last week an indignant person called wanting to know if KRC picked up garbage. We told her the usual good news. She replied that putting garbage in her car & bringing it all the way to us would be "the last straw" in the pile of difficulties that she has faced since moving to Kent. We replied: 500 families do it! But that started us thinking!!!

Last year our average family paid $160 for garbage/recycling. We know Kent residents who pay $900 a year for garbage pickup! How can we be so cheap? At first I thought — nobody at KRC is paid. Repeat: we are ALL unpaid volunteers and most of us have worked at the center since it started 1-1-91. But, valuable as we volunteers are, there is more to it thai i just us. YOU are the one who put garbage in your cars and ugh it in to us. You are the one who makes all our many separations. Where else do you see people separating: Styrofoam peanuts, shopping bags, brown paper bags, egg cartons, newspapers, junk mail, plastics 1, 2 & 3, three colors of glass, tins cans, aluminum foil, aluminum cans, three kinds of refundables and then add clothes, books and the inexhaustible free table items! No one anywhere near here makes this many separations. Don't forget to include refrigerators, air conditioners, dehumidifiers, electronics scrap metal, C& D & etc... The fact is that our system would network ... if you didn't do all these separations. Why have so many people worked so hard for so long? It is not $ only. There is a   certain satisfaction in working with friends who share a genuine concern for the future. Perhaps St Exupery has said it for us in Wind. Sand and Stars:" We forget that there is no hope for joy except in human relations."

NUCLEAR LAKE: hot or not?
Would you believe a nuclear processing plant was constructed and operated by our government on Route 55 a few miles west of Route 22? There's a sign on "55" stating "NUCLEAR LAKE". During WW II, fuel for nuclear submarines was processed at this site! One day there was an explosion! The workers wisely fled. While they were showering in a nearby building, the "hot box" blew out a window and contaminated the soil below. Later, the soil was dug up by a local contractor who, I am informed, was not aware that the soil was "hot". The mess was taken to a government storage area near Buffalo. I have a government report asserting that all contamination has been removed and that radiation levels are normal. I visited the site years ago with a Geiger Counter. I found several "hot spots" but had no way of knowing if they were within "normal" levels.   I can't help but compare this "quiet" explosion, and the unshielded nuclear reactor that no one has ever heard of ... with the publicity given to the leakages, the faulty sirens and the absolutely hilarious evacuation plans of Indian Point. There is just no substitute for a fully informed & fully concerned public.

 Jim Baker      225-7901


Comments can be sent to: christopher@ablestudio.com





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