NY City, County Trying To Buy Scrap Yard

For several years, residents along Fulton's South First Street have lived with mud, dirt, dust, rust and noise.

The dust keeps them out of their yards, keeps their windows closed. The dirt, they say, discourages them from upgrading their homes.

Neighbors say the dust and dirt comes from Fulton Scrap Processors, a scrap yard on South First Street at the edge of the Huhtamaki plant. There, a large metal claw fueled by diesel engines rips and hauls truckloads of scrap metal.  There's a fence around the scrap yard, but it keeps little out of the neighbors' homes, they believe.

But bluer skies and cleaner air could be in their future.

Though the area across the road from his home was once lined with houses, John Wroniak said he has watched as the homes came down and a junkyard opened.

"It started as a small junk yard," explained Wroniak, a resident of South First Street who lives directly across from the entrance of Fulton Scrap Processors. "Then it grew. It is a hell of a thing to put a junk yard in the center of a city."

A fence constructed around the area, Wroniak said, did nothing to alleviate the problems he and his neighbors face because of the business. "The fence is beautiful," Wroniak joked. "It prevents robbers from stealing the junk."

Wroniak said the roads are full of holes and covered with dust. Large trucks come through the residential area in a steady stream and a conveyor belt on the site, he said, spreads the dust as pieces of scrap metal are piled into the air.

"The dust flies all over," Wroniak said. "We can't even open the windows on the porch. They don't give a damn. The owners live in Syracuse and they take their cars back to Syracuse every night to live in their comfortable homes while we suffer."

Dick Burch, Wroniak's neighbor, recalled a day when he was trying to repair his roof last year. He said a load of metal fell, spreading "a huge cloud of rust" into the air.

"I watched the cloud come right at me," Burch said. "I had to get off the roof quick so I wouldn't be in the center of it."

Despite efforts to find help, Burch said he and his neighbors have been unable to make any difference. "We have tried to change things but we have never been able to get anywhere," Burch said. "No one would come out here to help."

"It has made our lives miserable," Wroniak added.

In an attempt to eliminate the problems in the area and to honor a commitment made first to Sealright and now to Huhtahmaki, the city and county is trying to buy the scrap yard. As a result, the scrap business is expected to close its doors this summer.

"Our last day is July 31," said Donald Camp of Fulton Scrap Processors. Camp declined further comment until later this summer.

"We are trying to eliminate the problems in that neighborhood," explained Fulton Mayor Michael Stafford. "The dust, mud and noise (from the business) has had an adverse effect on the quality of life in that neighborhood for years. We have tried to do things to remedy that before but it didn't work."

Stafford explained that a consortium made up of the city, the Fulton Community Development Agency and the Oswego County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) are involved in negotiations to purchase the property from Fulton Scrap Processors.

L. Michael Treadwell of the IDA said while a purchase offer has been made on the property, the details are not available at this time because the transaction is not finalized.

"We have made a purchase offer and we anticipate the closing probably sometime in August," Treadwell said. "The company has to clean everything out right now and because the agreement is not official, things are still subject to change."

Treadwell explained that the endeavor is part of the original commitment the city made to Huhtahmaki to make the company's property operate more as a campus setting.

"This is looked at as a positive for everyone," Treadwell said. "To have the city with a scrap yard in its downtown area really did not work in its comprehensive plan."

Treadwell pointed out that the groups are negotiating to acquire the property and will subsequently clean it up to better suit the neighborhood setting. The property could also serve Huhtahmaki's future expansion needs, he said.

"It has taken a while to negotiate everything and go through the environmental review process," Treadwell explained. Though initial steps began approximately five years ago, Treadwell said much progress has been made in the past year.

"We hope this will make the neighbors happy in that area," Treadwell said. "It will certainly reduce traffic and noise. ... This was something the city felt was important to improve and enhance the quality of life downtown."

He added, too, that the consortium hopes that Huhtahmaki's corporate officers will see the move as positive, potentially sparking future economic development in Fulton.

When told that the scrap yard could be leaving soon, Burch said, "If that's true, you don't know how happy I will be.