by Bea Peterson
The Eastern Rensselaer County (ERC) Community Warehouse located on Route 22 in Hoosick, just outside Hoosick Falls, is looking for a new location somewhere within the Villages and Towns of the ERC Solid Waste Management Authority. One requirement is that the new location be on a main thoroughfare, as it is now. Last week Warehouse director Matt Curley said the Warehouse, a not-for-profit, is not doing well at the moment. [private]”Donations are down quite a bit,” he said. “We still have plenty of customers, but we don’t have as much to offer.” He agreed that the economy certainly has something to do with it. “People are hanging on to their couches and washing machines longer because they can’t afford to replace them,” he said. The Warehouse accepts reusable goods from individuals, businesses and institutions. These materials are then re-sold, at low cost, to those who need them.
Curley said they have a buyer interested in the property and that would help the Warehouse’s financial picture. If the property is sold to the purported buyer, Dollar General, then the property would once again be on the Town tax rolls. Curley said he doesn’t expect the sale, if it happens, to be completed before June or July.
ERCSWMA History
According to its website, the Eastern Rensselaer County Solid Waste Management Authority is a public benefits corporation that was established in 1989. The Authority’s purpose is to provide its members with environmentally sound, comprehensive and cost-effective solid waste management services. Those services include long term waste disposal and transportation contracts, household hazardous waste collection days and waste reduction and recycling programs, including establishing markets for all recyclables collected.
The Warehouse was established by the ERC Solid Waste Management Authority as a special project in 1995. It is now a separate entity.
Eastern Rensselaer County communities involved in ERCSWMA include the Villages of Castleton, Hoosick Falls, Nassau and Valley Falls and the Towns of Pittstown, Schaghticoke and Stephentown. The Warehouse could be moved to any one of these communities.
Site History
In the January 2011 Hoosick Township Historical Society newsletter Town Historian Phil Leonard published a history of the area that included the Warehouse. According to the newsletter, the land became a farm around 1800. It was purchased in 1803 by Timothy Graves and remained in the Graves family for 105 years. The property changed hands several times after that. In the 1950s some of the buildings became the L&S Lumber Company. During that same time period many folks may remember that one of the buildings became the night spot called “The Barn.” It was owned first by Hector Roberts and his wife and later by Marian and James Redden.
The Falls Hardware Supply, owned by Gerald Greenberg, burned to the ground in 1973. Greenberg purchased L&S Lumber from Bob Stetson, re-established and expanded the business into the Falls Hardware Supply Co. and made it a complete home building center. Years later the property was purchased by Curtis Lumber. When Curtis expanded to larger quarters on Route 7, the buildings remained empty until the Warehouse moved in.
If the sale of the property goes through, Curley believes Dollar General will tear down all the buildings on the property and put up a new structure.
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