GUILDERLAND — Richard and Sandra Hameroff, who are preparing to build a car wash across from Market 32 and the State Employees Federal Credit Union on Western Avenue, will receive $300,000 in tax breaks, the Guilderland Industrial Development Agency decided at its Sept. 23 meeting.

Earth is currently being removed from the hilly site at 2123 Western Avenue, to make it possible to build the 190-foot car wash with 24 vacuum stations. The site will also include a credit-union building. 

The IDA voted, 4 to 0, Monday night, with one abstention, to grant the Hameroffs $260,000 of relief in sales and compensating-use taxes on anticipated qualified expenses necessary to build the project, and $44,300 relief in mortgage-recording taxes.

A report submitted with the Hameroffs’ application says net financial benefits of the project would total $5.7 million. 

The Hameroffs also claimed, in their application for tax breaks, that environmentally-friendly,  modern car-wash technology, which conserves and reclaims water, did not exist nearby. But the owner of another car wash in Guilderland, David Fusco, told The Enterprise he has long used such technology.

The Enterprise asked the IDA’s chief executive officer, Donald Csaposs, if the board had been convinced that the technology to be used in the Hameroffs’ car wash would be different and more eco-friendly than that of other car washes in the area, and on what basis. 

Csaposs replied in an email the day after the Sept. 23 meeting, “The technology matter was not discussed.”

IDA member Shelly Johnston had earlier announced that she would abstain from voting. She is a professional engineer with Creighton Manning, which was retained by the Hameroffs to prepare a traffic study and engineer road improvements for the project. IDA counsel A. Joseph Cott told The Enterprise earlier that Johnston is in a different department and was not involved with the work. 

Not otherwise reasonably accessible? 

The Hameroffs’ application to the IDA claims that the car wash would create nine new jobs, and would provide services that “would not, but for the Project, be reasonably accessible to the residents” of Guilderland. They wrote, “Modern car wash technology that protects the environment through water conservation and reclamation is not available. Existing commercial facilities are older and not as eco-friendly. Home car washing allows cleansers and pollutants to enter soil and aquifer.” 

Richard Hameroff says his car wash will conserve water and also reclaim and reuse more than half the water it uses.

Tom Hoffman, chief executive officer of Hoffman Car Wash, told The Enterprise earlier that it is possible to reclaim about 50 percent of the water a car wash uses, and that some of his newest locations, including in Queensbury, do that.

All of the company’s car washes are connected to municipal sewer systems, so 100 percent of their water is recycled at their treatment facility, Hoffman said. At his car wash closest to Guilderland, at 1757 Central Ave. in Colonie, almost four miles from the Hameroffs’ site, none of the water is recycled on-site, Hoffman said.

David Fusco, owner of Colonial Car Wash at 1769 Western Ave., less than two miles away from the Hameroffs’ site, told The Enterprise, “We have the latest in car-wash technology.” He said his car wash was “one of the leaders in the country.” 

He started the car wash in the 1970s on wells, Fusco said, before the town allowed him to use municipal water in the 1980s. 

Fusco said that his car wash recycles about 25 percent of the water it uses and has filtration systems that remove all but 10 to 20 microns of suspended solids. Vehicles are washed with 25-percent recycled water, and rinsed with 100-percent fresh, he said.

The final rinse is done with reverse-osmosis water, he said. Reverse-osmosis water is passed through filters, with all the clean water going into a tank used to rinse cars, and the rest collected and reused for washing cars. All water is passed through sediment tanks before being sent into the sanitary sewer, Fusco said, “so we don’t put any solids down the sewer.” 

Fusco concluded, “We want to be eco-friendly, but you have to do that. If you don’t do these measures, you can’t afford water. You wouldn’t be able to operate the car wash.” 

Asked about what Fusco said, Hameroff told The Enterprise this week, “I’m not aware of what they do, but I do know that what we’re bringing is all of the most modern technology that’s available to conserve water.” 

Fusco said that he doubted the Hameroffs’ car wash would be able to reuse 50 percent of its water, saying, “The problem with recycled water is you can’t get the sodium from road salt out of it. Do you want to be washing your car with salty water?” 

He asked whether the IDA will hold the Hameroffs to the 50-percent amount.

Fusco himself said he’d like to get IDA tax breaks for his Carman Ridge Apartments, currently being constructed on Route 146, and was told by an IDA member there was no public benefit so he wouldn’t qualify.

Fusco asked: Where’s the public benefit in a car wash?