by Alex Brooks and Doug La Rocque
Since early April the Berlin and Petersburgh Town Boards have been working on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at guiding the collaboration of the two towns on a project to contain leachate leaking from the landfill as required by a consent order both towns have signed with the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. The original version of the MOU, written by both Towns’ environmental attorney Kevin Young assumed continued involvement of both his firm and Sterling Environmental Engineering, which started work on the landfill project last November.
The Petersburgh Board, with Heinz Noeding taking the lead, revised the document, incorporating a provision to have both the attorney services and the environmental engineering put out for bid.
The Berlin Board was not happy with the revised MOU and approved the original one instead. The two town attorneys then spoke to see if a compromise agreement could be negotiated, but Petersburgh attorney David Gruenberg reported to the Board at its May 18 meeting that the Berlin Board is “not interested in making changes to the MOU.”
Under pressure from deadlines contained in its consent order with DEC, the Petersburgh Board agreed by a 4-1 vote to go along with the original version, and the two towns now have an agreement in place to pursue the landfill project collaboration. Heinz Noeding voted against the agreement. He said he believes Sterling Environmental is “very pricey.”