Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I've been following the Dalton thing out of morbid curiosity. Mainly because I hate New York NIMBY whiners and the NIMBY in chief has been vocal in touting his vast Army experience when in fact he was just a one tour reservist. Absolutely nothing wrong with reserve folks-I've ridden in enough trucks, aircraft, or whatever run by the reserve component both in the US and deployed. You just don't get to pump up your military experience when you really have very little.
So I'm not a dump fan, a Casella fan, or an out of state trash fan, but the trash has to go somewhere. Why not an existing industrial sight(gravel pit) in Dalton. The Dalton project has never been about out of state trash, but has been because the existing landfill in Bethlehem is just about used up. The Dalton sight is close by so there will be little change to the truck traffic. The out of state trash thing is just another campaign by Jon Alvarez(Swan) to sow discord. Alvarez's campaign has been all about fear, NIMBY stuff(even though it is over a mile from his house), and misinformation using old data versus information about modern and custom designed & closely regulated landfills.
Now the proposed traffic pattern is a big deal IMO. While it is not hugely different from the existing route(mostly on 93), it does expand a bit onto smaller roads. The last time I saw the route, it was going almost into the center of Whitefield. While the US 3 to SR 142 is not the tightest turn out there, I foresee required improvements to intersections and roads so as to handle the increased truck traffic.
What Mr Alvarez and his wife has done is brought zoning to Dalton. "Emergency" zoning at that lol. If anyone wants to see some zoning related drama, look up the issues now in Conway with STRs, the issues in Campton last year with the bar and outdoor seating, and look up how someone had to sue the town of Holderness just so they could live in the house. Read Campton's most recent BOS minutes and see references to noise ordinances and further removing owner's rights. Speaking of, why doesn't Dalton publish their minutes in a timely manner--last one I see is from 7 June where places like Holderness or Campton have already published late June and July minutes. Not very transparent.
Zoning is all about restricting property owner's rights. Go figure that a New Yorker like Alvarez(Swan) brought NIMBY zoning to Dalton.
Alvarez's wife(who else could it be) also published information regarding a private business(Casella) on the Dalton webpage. While the permitting status is of public interest(mainly for curiosity), the private dealings between the state and a business are frankly nobody's business but the state and said business. Not a very impartial move by the select board.
Furthermore, Dalton is flat broke. It could use the tax revenue. They published their budget earlier this year and they overspent again. This is despite a tax increase into the 24th percentile and according to their website cutting the clerk's hours to just two days a week. The only town services Dalton provides are the clerk/tax collector, a 1 1/2 day a week transfer station(have to buy special bags), a volly fire department, and a highway department(good folks in the highway department).
From Dalton's most recent Master Plan which has been referenced in some of the zoning letters on the Dalton website(the website is a hot mess IMO):
· Commercial and industrial development may be good for the town, in order to diversify the tax base and reduce taxes on homeowners. However, to protect Dalton's character, the town should identify specific, limited areas for future commercial or industrial development, so that the vast majority of the town remains rural.
The town of Dalton failed to do so and people are surprised when someone wants to use an existing off the beaten path industrial sight for---industrial stuff?
· Dalton property owners must be able to count on full protection of their property rights. Any future land use regulations must fully respect and protect how Dalton's residents and property owners are currently using their land, subject to health and safety considerations.
Zoning removes property owner's rights.
So what Mr Alvarez(Swan) and his wife along with their posse has done is remove property owner's rights, kept Dalton's tax rate high, and are trying to keep the town of Dalton broke. Alvarez is so well liked in Dalton that he ran unopposed for a tax collector job and was soundly beaten by a write in. I fully understand that nobody wants a prison or dump within a couple miles from their house, but it has to go somewhere and that problem isn't going away.
The trade off is traffic, road maintenance, stench, flies, etc for tax money, and that's assuming due diligence has been paid to environmental issues. I can see why a lot of people would be against a regional landfill. Why would anyone in NH want NY's trash?
NYC collects upwards of 12,000 tons of trash a day and growing. .Good luck Dalton . Once the truck Train starts how do you stop more than five hundred trucks a day Rolling your town.
If not there, then where? Our primary landfill in the area will be full soon, and the state can do some shifting around for a few years, but will be forced to put one somewhere. What is wrong with using an existing industrial sight nearby?
We already take in out of state trash, but the couple of articles I read on it make no mention of NY-just other New England states-primarily the one to our south. The out of state trash screeching from the NIMBYs is more of a distraction than anything. This is also for our trash.
I'll doubt the smell, flies, etc. When I was a kid one of my best friends lived within a half mile of the town dump-this was a real dump and not the sanitized and regulated things today. I spent well over a hundred days or nights over there. Great place to watch bald eagles pick through the trash. Anyhow-no smell, no flies, no negative effect from the dump. Similar experiences elsewhere. Get closer-sure.
The truck traffic is already there. You see the same trash trucks running 93 north every day through the Notch. The new proposed location is less than seven miles from the current one, so we're not talking about a huge difference in roads needing additional maintenance.
Also a lot of talk about Casella being a Vermont company. Took a leisurely ride up 106 from Concord through Laconia and then the Meredith today. What name was on the side of the dumpsters and some of the trash trucks. So Vermont company or not, they already have business in NH.
Anyhow, I have no dog in that fight. Just a profound dislike for NIMBY attitudes and and even greater dislike for the disingenuous way Alvarez has been campaigning. If he didn't want something there, then he should have bought the land. It's also disappointing that the citizens of Dalton are getting their property rights stomped on.
Maybe when the dumps close I can save my trash in the back yard and burn it on Earth Day.
The trade off is traffic, road maintenance, stench, flies, etc for tax money, and that's assuming due diligence has been paid to environmental issues. I can see why a lot of people would be against a regional landfill. Why would anyone in NH want NY's trash?
Hey, hey! OP/NY here. I promise I won’t bring my trash! LOL Not too much here on LI
Just potholes!
Hey, hey! OP/NY here. I promise I won’t bring my trash! LOL Not too much here on LI Just potholes!
Completely unrelated, but I've noticed NH has been doing a killer job repaving some of the state roads this summer. 175 is almost done, 135 is done, 127 is almost done. Kind of nice as I travel some of these several times a week.
Completely unrelated, but I've noticed NH has been doing a killer job repaving some of the state roads this summer. 175 is almost done, 135 is done, 127 is almost done. Kind of nice as I travel some of these several times a week.
The only thing they're killing here is tax revenue. They pave 50 ft of road, then leave the next 100 ft as is, pave another 75 ft, switch to the other lane, pave that for 100 ft, don't do either side for 1/4 mile (?lunch break), rinse and repeat.
The only thing they're killing here is tax revenue. They pave 50 ft of road, then leave the next 100 ft as is, pave another 75 ft, switch to the other lane, pave that for 100 ft, don't do either side for 1/4 mile (?lunch break), rinse and repeat.
I guess that tax revenue is off set by the zero income tax?
I don't send money to Concord just so they can waste it on crappy paving jobs. If that's how you want your taxes spent, you can pay mine too.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
