By Jason Klaiber

Staff Writer

The DeWitt Advisory Conservation Commission (DACC) held a meeting on August 7 addressing improper trash disposal and the status of deer culling on a local level.

Dereth Glance, the executive director of Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency (OCCRA), attended the meeting to discuss garbage dumping with DACC members.

Dennis Payne, chair of the DACC, came prepared with photos of mattresses, worn-out blankets and furniture strewn along Old Stonehouse Road in Jamesville.

“It’s become a prime dumping location,” he said.

Payne also recounted seeing hundreds of car tires disposed of in stacks at various spots on Rock Cut Road over time.

About two years ago, Onondaga County Legislature Chairman Dave Knapp worked with the legislature and the county highway department to construct a gate meant to stop people from throwing tires down the hills lining the road.

The Town of DeWitt also put up security cameras as deterrents.

According to Payne, trash items occasionally fall off hauling trucks as the vehicles head up Rock Cut Road on the way to the OCCRA incinerator.

Glance said the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) can issue tickets for littering whether the act is intentional or not after investigating complaints from witnesses. 

In past years, for clean-up sessions around the area, Covanta has recruited local Boy Scout troops to work, while the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office has deployed crews comprised of supervised Jamesville Penitentiary inmates to help. 

The question of whether the Boy Scouts’ work should be rewarded with payment in the future arose during the meeting.

Glance said the community service done by the Boy Scouts teaches them about how to properly deal with garbage and provides lessons on how power plants and waste management facilities operate.

Knapp, who also showed up to the meeting, suggested that organized crews should clean up parts of the DeWitt community on a monthly or even bimonthly basis.

Payne said he wants to enlist the assistance of people living beyond the town line in places like Manlius.

Glance also said that members of the DACC should urge state lawmakers to add a 25-cent deposit on wine and spirit bottles.

She said such bottles end up broken in recycling bins before being contaminated, sorted out and used for engineering applications at landfills.

Kerin Rigney, the liaison between the town board and the DACC, said community members should try to reduce the amount of trash they generate in the first place.

Last week’s meeting later gravitated to the subject of local deer management.

Payne said deer management efforts have been successful so far in the area and that he hopes the program will be extended with continued state funding.

He said people dubious about the morality of shooting deer might be convinced by the fact that the resulting venison gets donated to food banks.

The town’s annual fall clean-up has been scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 28.

Unless otherwise noted, the DACC meets the first Wednesday of every month in Meeting Room B of the DeWitt Town Hall.