WESTERLO — The Middleburgh commercial trash hauler who is in violation of Westerlo’s solid-waste code is selling his route after the town decided he wouldn’t be allowed to continue using Westerlo’s transfer station.

The hauler, Jamison Corallo, who does business as Viking Solar, which is primarily a solar-power company but serves as the brand for Corallo’s trash-hauling venture, said that he has rented a Dumpster in which he’ll store customers’ trash while he searches for a buyer, so there won’t be any service interruption.

Corallo had been dumping trash from out of town without a permit before Deputy Supervisor Matthew Kryzak ruled that Corallo would no longer be able to use the town transfer station last month, after hearing input from the town board, town clerk, and Highway Superintendent Jody Ostrander, who oversees transfer-station operations.

Westerlo’s garbage law was recently amended to include an annual $25 permit fee required of all residents who use the transfer station, including those who use a commercial service like Corallo’s.

Corallo sent the town an appeal letter, dated Oct. 21, but had apparently continued to dump trash in Westerlo before the town board could act on the appeal, which it’s expected to do on Nov. 16. In his letter, Corallo had requested that he be able to continue using the station while his appeal was being considered.

“The last time he came and dumped illegally, after he was told not to dump there, the transfer station guys, when they looked through some of the recyclables, they found boxes and a magazine with people’s addresses who don’t live in town, including Jamison’s, so he’s still bringing in garbage from out of town,” Kryzak told The Enterprise this week.

When called for a response to those claims, Corallo said, “When I got the letter, I probably dumped one week after that. And then the next week they kicked us out. It took me a little bit of time to figure out what to do with as far as where to dump the Westerlo clients’ rubbish. Right now I have a Dumpster that I’m renting for two weeks until I sit in front of the town [at the Nov. 16 meeting] and figure out what we’re going to do.”

In an email, Corallo said that he was going to “fight for his right to dump” at the town transfer station during that Nov. 16 meeting. 

In his appeal letter, Corallo wrote that he was in the process of terminating service for clients who were refusing to pay for permits. Previously, Corallo said that he had around 40 Westerlo clients, and in the letter, he said that approximately 20 had secured permits, and he sent a list of those clients to the town. Kryzak said this week that the town wants a full list of clients.

Also in his letter, Corallo stressed that, by prohibiting him from using the Westerlo dump, the town was depriving some of its elderly residents an “above and beyond” service, since Corallo apparently provides door-to-door collection for older clients to “ensure they don’t have to bring their rubbish down long driveways to the road.”

At the first meeting where the town board had discussed how to handle trash haulers who were out of compliance with code, the board was sympathetic to the loss that some elderly residents might suffer as a result of any action taken against the companies, but determined that the law needed to be followed, and that earlier attempts to request compliance had gone more or less unanswered, which didn’t foster a sense of mutual cooperation. 

“We sent two letters, I believe, one in June and one in July, trying to notify [Corallo] that his permit was up in August,” Kryzak said, “and let him know all the required documents he needed to send in with his application. He did nothing. Absolutely nothing. And we let him go all the way up until October … We gave him plenty of time.”

The other trash company that services Westerlo — 4 Seasons Home and Service — has since submitted all the necessary paperwork and terminated service with clients who wouldn’t pay for a Westerlo transfer-station permit, which costs $25 and lasts one year. Kryzak said that 4 Seasons “did great” in its efforts to comply with town law, and that it will be able to continue dumping at the town despite some earlier infractions.

“How can we revoke their privilege if they’re following the rules? The only reason Jamison’s privileges have been revoked is because he hasn’t complied with the rules,” Kryzak said.

However, Jamison Corallo denied that he had been dumping waste from clients who live outside of Westerlo, and explained why he had disposed of boxes that have his name and an outside address.

“I own a house in Westerlo and I have a bunch of garbage in it, and I brought boxes from my [other] house to fill that garbage from the house in Westerlo … I just threw the recycling in there because it did come from the house that’s in Westerlo,” Corallo said. 

Although Corallo plans to state his case at the Nov. 16 meeting, Kryzak said that, at this point, he won’t likely vote to reinstate Corallo’s permit.

Although Corallo had planned to state his case at the Nov. 16 meeting, Kryzak told The Enterprise before the meeting he wasn’t likely to vote to reinstate Corallo’s permit.

“If he had followed the rules, we wouldn’t have any of these problems,” Kryzak said. “If he could fill out his stuff in a timely manner and submit the stuff we requested, we would have all been fine here. But continuing to not apply for your permit, being 60 days past it, still dumping at the town, and then, when you’re told not to dump, you still come back and dump illegally, and then you dump stuff that’s obviously not from the town, I mean, that presents some issues.”

“ … The way I look at it, I’m not voting to reinstate him being able to dump in town because he cannot follow the rules,” Kryzak went on. “He’s violated the law on several occasions and we’re just done with that at this point.”

The town board is currently made up of four members, including Kryzak, who is acting as supervisor following former Supervisor Bill Bichteman’s resignation, and most members have expressed some level of unhappiness with the lack of hauler compliance at meetings. 

“The board is pretty much frustrated with Jamison at this point,” Kryzak said, “because he doesn’t seem to get it. If you can’t follow the rules, you lose your privileges.”