Almost all of the 80 Rotterdam residents who crowded into the town hall meeting room during a public hearing before the planning commission last week protested a salt company’s request to relocate to their neighborhood.
Speaker after speaker told commissioners they opposed granting a special-use permit to let Ricelli Enterprises move and expand its bulk salt operation to an area of the Rotterdam Industrial Park that is near a residential area and Pop Warner football field.
Ricelli has operated in the park for years without incident, but its salt pile currently sits near the tracks, where construction is slated for the Railex project, an $18 million business in the works that will facilitate the delivery of fresh produce from Washington state to Rotterdam, in refrigerated rail cars. The mile-long trains will un-load their cargo at the industrial park, and it will be stored in a new distribution center being built near the Golub Corp.’s facility. The operation is expected to employ up to 300 people.
Steve Porter, an attorney for Galesi Group, which owns the industrial park, said Railex needs the salt pile to move now.
After looking at several alternative sites, (Ricelli Enterprises) indicated they really couldn’t find any acceptable sites, so they asked us to find a site, Porter said, explaining Galesi Group’s interest in supporting Ricelli’s permit application. `It’s the only site in the park that will work for them. There was no intent to mislead.`
Ricelli’s lawyer, Frederick Micale, stunned residents when he announced that the chairman of the Pop Warner league had submitted a letter supporting Ricelli’s requested move.
At an earlier meeting, a Pop Warner representative had ex-pressed concerns about locating the salt pile so close to the field. Pop Warner leases the playing field from Galesi for $1 per year.
`We’re here this evening not to further argue our case but to hear the public,` Micale said, noting the testimony provided on behalf of the salt company at the earlier meeting.
Micale got his wish for input, as residents rose in numbers to speak.
With one exception, all of residents railed against the company’s request to move adjacent to their neighborhood.
Starting off the fireworks was Fern Avenue resident Bob Massaroni, who made an impassioned plea to commissioners to reject the salt company’s application.
He noted that the 200,000 tons of salt that Ricelli representatives have estimated will fill the 60-foot high pile covering more than 4 acres might not sound like much, unless the tons are converted into pounds. Massaroni said that 200,000 tons of salt works out to 400 million pounds of salt, which is an awful lot of salt.
The Fern Avenue resident worried aloud that salt would migrate from the industrial park location and damage houses, pools and perhaps the health of children in the neighborhood.
Massaroni said he also worries that a large salt pile across from the field where more than 200 children play Pop Warner football could have an adverse effect on the young players’ health.
Also, he said he believes that salt will leach into the aquifer and contaminate drinking water, especially for people who still draw their water from private wells.
In addition to health issues, Massaroni expressed concern about salt damaging his lawn and the aluminum siding of his house.
Later in the meeting, an expert hired by Ricelli repeated his belief that salt dust was too heavy to be carried far enough by wind to cause problems for neighbors. Another noted that the company was taking a number of mitigation measures, including having a street sweeper regularly clean the streets.
Massaroni argued that the street sweeping is a tacit company admission that salt dust would become airborne and travel throughout the neighborhood.
`That means they know there’s going to be dust drifting from there,` Massaroni said.
He closed with an anguished appeal to his elected officials.
`Rotterdam is a nice place to live. You people of the planning commission should have told them that we don’t want 200,000 tons of salt,` Massaroni said. `Put it someplace else. Find somewhere without private houses nearby, and store it there.`
Massaroni’s neighbor, Ron Pidgeon, followed him and echoed his opposition.
Pidgeon, a retired DOT auditor, expressed skepticism about company claims that salt dust would not be blown throughout the neighborhood. He said his professional experience leads him to believe that, in high wind conditions, salt will blow as it is being poured onto trucks or on the pile.
According to a number of area residents, the neighborhood regularly experiences high winds.
That led him to echo concerns about potential health consequences for the children playing football nearby.
`I’m appalled at the Rotterdam Pop Warner for allowing them to build along there,` Pidgeon said, in conclusion. `I hope Pop Warner hasn’t been given some kind of deal to relocate.`
Fern Avenue resident Reggie Puller said he has spent a lot of time and money improving his property.
`I’m not very happy about this,` Puller said. `We like to keep our windows open, and I don’t want to have dust in the house. I am urging the planning commission to not give this permit.`
Lawn Avenue resident Donny Phalen is worried that the salt will blanket the neighborhood, all the way over to Guilderland Avenue.
Joyce Randall, another Fern Avenue resident, said she is against the pile of salt.
`It’s too large,` she said.
Evergreen Avenue resident George Hollenbeck said that neighbors have adjusted to much of the developments in the neighborhood, including increased truck traffic and noise.
`This salt pile is like the end of the road for some people,` Hollenbeck said, before questioning if Ricelli was receiving preferential treatment.
Hollenbeck said residents need to apply for almost any improvement to their property and have been turned down in the past based on obstructing neighborhood views. `People out there have beautiful views of the Mariavilles. A 60-foot pile is going to change that.`
Another neighbor, Donald DiMatteo, said his wife has emphysema, and he is worried his wife’s health will be jeopardized by airborne salt particles.
`If she gets worse, I’ll sue everybody and anything,` DiMatteo said.
The only neighborhood resident to voice support for Ricelli was Mary Barasco, of North Westcott Road.
`I feel the storage of road salt presents no health effects for me or my children,` Barasco said, adding she supported the development at the industrial park.
Micale presented commissioners with a petition that he said was signed by neighborhood residents supporting the company’s application.
Neighborhood comments continued for almost two hours, prompting planning commission chairman Lawrence DiLallo to keep the public hearing open to allow more comments at the next meeting on Sept. 5.
Micale and his contracted consultants answered questions from commissioners and tried to rebut residents and quell their fears.
Residents contacted after the meeting said they were not convinced or swayed by what Micale or his consultants said and plan to attend next week’s meeting.
Fern Avenue resident Massaroni was dismayed to learn that neighbors on adjoining streets would not learn of the extended public hearing by mail, prompting him to say he and other neighbors would contact their neighbors and get them to attend.
The next public hearing is set for Tuesday, Sept. 5, at 7:30 p.m., in the second floor meeting room of the John F. Kirvin Government Center, on Sunrise Boulevard.
`We’re going to flood this room and oppose those 200,000 tons coming in,` Massaroni said.
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