(erielack) Dundee Branch trash talk

[Todd Hollritt <thollritt_@_yahoo.com>]

Resident suggests taking trash on train
Thursday, July 7, 2011   
BY SUSAN JOY CLARK
STAFF WRITER
Community News (Lodi Edition)
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A Lodi resident suggested the possibility of transporting trash by train at a council meeting on June 13.
Resident John Cannizzaro provided copies of an article he'd read on the topic to all members of the council. Cannizzarro told the council that according to the article several local communities have been compelled to transfer trash to Ohio because of nearby landfills closing.
He listed several benefits of transporting trash by train to the council.
"There's a tremendous increase in economic benefit. It doesn't pay a salary for every single little truckload. You can put three truckloads or more in one train car, and you pay two people to take hundreds of these cars out. It's a lot less than paying the salary of a truck driver, one truck driver for every little load," said Cannizzaro.
He mentioned that pollution and congestion on the roads would be reduced by using this method.
"I'm just thinking a little bit out of the box. Maybe the borough might want to consider something innovative," he said.
He stated that New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad was abandoning the Lodi branch of the railroad.
"That opens up an opportunity. For instance, the Dundee branch that used to be the Erie Railroad — they were taken over by Conrail — that goes into Passaic which cuts off on Rose Street. Tracks go down to Rose Street from Garfield, crosses the bridge into Passaic and there's a yard there," said Cannizzaro.
Cannizzaro said that the new operator, Jimmy Wilson, calls it Green Light Railroad.
"When Conrail, the former owner, abandoned it, Jimmy Wilson applied to operate it as a short line operator, Class One. All you need is a working engine, and you can apply for that. He didn't buy those engines. He leases some of them, and you can lease them pretty cheaply," he said.
He suggested that the borough investigate setting up a zone near the inspection station along the tracks where there are many empty buildings and setting up a license for an area for a garbage transfer operation.
"That doesn't mean the borough has to go into business. You can lease it out to an operator who wants to do that. The trucks don't have to go over Main Street and stink up the town. They can go right in and out of Route 17 which is perfect access and egress for trucks. You can have this operation, and it goes $1 per ton taking charge of most of the borough. You don't have to spend any money doing it," said Cannizzaro.
Borough Manager Tony Luna said that he did not want to bring garbage into another neighborhood and that the railroad was not abandoned but those tracks were used for storage.
"Any materials from knocked down buildings, any solid, not waste, cement, they're storing… They do (use it,) because I called the railroad last year when they had these railroad cars backed up full of cement," said Luna.
Cannizzaro assured him that while that may have been true last year, the railroad has filed for abandonment.
"I don't know if I would want to bring any more garbage into Garfield," said Luna.
Councilman Marc Schrieks also expressed concern about transporting trash through residential communities.
Councilman Bruce Masopust said he needed to look into the idea more before forming a full opinion, but he did suggest that when the town next goes out to bid for garbage services, it could open it up to companies that dump trash by rail.
 
Todd ~

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