City in New York Hopes to Relocate Scrap Recycler

City hopes to redevelop waterway for recreational purposes.

 

A plan to move a scrap yard on the Kingston, NY, waterfront to a property near the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency headquarters in Ulster is under consideration, city officials said.

 

Mayor James Sottile and Steve Finkle, director of the city's Office for Economic Development, said talks are ongoing between the owner of B. Millens & Sons Inc. and representatives of the Miron family, owners of the property.

 

Sottile said his administration has had several discussions with the scrap yard owners with an eye toward moving the operation to an enclosed facility on the Miron property. Sottile said there is no final plan in place, but that the effort stems from a study a couple of years ago that set the relocation of scrap yards as a priority in the redevelopment of the waterfront.

 

"I just don't think it makes sense today to put a junkyard along the banks of the Hudson River or Rondout Creek, and we need to work to get these facilities relocated," Sottile said. "This is a monumental task. ... First, you have to relocate them and get them into a facility so that they can continue to be a profitable business."

 

Sottile said administration officials have been involved in talks with representatives of the Millens property for at least two years. Finkle, in particular, has been trying to convince the owners to relocate to the Miron property.

 

"It makes sense to be on that property where that type of activity is already taking place," Sottile said, referring to recycling operations of the Resource Recovery Agency.

 

Relocating the Millens operation and cleaning up possible contamination on the site would be a major step toward making the waterfront more attractive to developers, Finkle said.

 

"Obviously, there is a environmental benefit to working with the property owners and any purchasers to clean up the sites," Finkle said. "The visual (impacts) and the aesthetics would be greatly improved, access to the waterfront would improve, and add to the quality of life."

 

Last week, city officials announced Robert Iannucci, a retired Brooklyn attorney, had purchased two significant pieces of property on the waterfront, including Island Dock. In March, the would-be developer purchased the former Cornell Steamboat Repair shop on East Strand.

 

Iannucci is also in negotiations to purchase the L&M Auto Parts scrap yard on East Strand. That facility is going out of business and has been 90 percent cleared of vehicles and other materials, city officials said. Daily Freeman

 

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