Virtuoso: No more dumping in Town of Niagara

By Benjamin Joe

Town of Niagara Councilman Johnny Parks was resolute in his message to junkyard operators at a special meeting Tuesday.

“You guys do a good business,” he said. “But we want you to do it safely.”

The Town of Niagara Town Board convened in the large courtroom chamber after a group of about 10 people arrived. While originally scheduled for the relatively smaller conference room, it seemed the issue, which focused on the junkyards between Hyde Park and Witmer avenues, attracted some of the owners of those properties to attend the 2:30 p.m. meeting. Other attendees consisted of town workers.

“Those streets are impassable,” Parks continued. “It’s not safe for our fire and police. So, if you guys own the property, you know what needs to be done. We’d like your help to get this cleaned up and move forward. We don’t want to move backwards. This is our town, not just the Town Board’s. It’s all of ours. We’ve got to get together (and) take this on.”

The last study of the junkyards was done in 2021, Building Inspector Charles Haseley said. He noted that, while the alleyways and paper streets could be cleaned, it was anyone’s guess how long they’d stay that way.

“Over the years, there’s vehicles there that have been in different stages of disrepair. They could be in compliance one hour; the next hour they’re not,” he said. “The problem is everything the junkyards don’t use or have to pay to get rid of end up on our streets.”

He also noted that it is impossible to give a ticket to anyone, because the junk is on public property and no one is going to say whose it was.

Highway Superintendent Richard Sirianni said one of the options is to simply tow the cars and trash any garbage out of the paper streets. That would take some work, he said, and cost the taxpayer.

However, he said the meeting Tuesday was the first step toward fixing the problem entirely – and more options would present themselves.

Sirianni also said some of the junk may also be salvageable, to recoup some of the cost.

“The first step is to put everybody on notice,” Sirianni said. “Then we’ll make a decision.”

One junkyard owner, David Matiasz, questioned the board on its facts.

“The alleyways were abandoned years ago,” he said. “They’ve supposedly been abandoned and turned over to the property owners on each side.”

Supervisor Sylvia Virtuoso said she was not sure if that was the case, but Town Attorney Michael Risman quickly spoke up saying he was not aware of any abandonment.

Virtuoso explained, “I was asked today, ‘Why now?’ Because someone has to take the bull by the horns, and that’s what we decided to do. … It’s a health hazard. It’s a problem, and we want to clean it up.”

Virtuoso also noted some of the junkyards are unregistered. She said she would answer any questions they had and work with them to fix the problem.

For the operators in the room, whether registered or unregistered, she spoke directly to them: “I hope you cooperate with us, because I don’t think any of you want your businesses to really look the way it is and have illegal dumping on your properties, as well. Because, what I saw today: the hot tubs, the trailers – and from what I understand, there are even mobile homes coming from different areas that are being dumped on the properties.

“It stops today. We will have police patrol. We are going to correct it and it will stop. No more dumping in the Town of Niagara.”