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Putnam County Mulls Banning Plastic Bags
Legislators begin considering wind energy for the County
by Margaret Sternberg
At its June 12, 2007 meeting, the Health Committee of the County Legislature heard a request from Walter Thompson of Keep Putnam Beautiful to ban plastic bags in the county.
Thompson began with a broad overview of litter, then moving to discuss issues specifically related to plastic bags, such as decomposition times, that they cannot be composted, and their chemical composition.
He suggested Putnam County enact a law that would prohibit the distribution of plastic bags and non-recyclable paper bags as checkout bags in order to reduce their "detrimental" environmental impact. He also suggested a series of graduated penalties for stores in violation of the law. The law would also require compostable plastic, recyclable paper and/re "reasonable bags" be offered at point of sale in all Putnam County retail establishments. There would be monetary credit for people bringing their own bags, as well as charges imposed for use of store bags.
Chairman Sam Oliverio said that the package of materials Thompson had distributed would be forwarded to Dr. Sherlita Amler, head of the County Board of Health, for consideration, and that the Committee would revisit the issue in July.
In other business, there was a brief discussion held about the feasibility of bringing a wind energy resource center to the county in an effort to have the County become more "green." Spearheaded by Legislator Mary Conklin, who had contacted various sources while in Albany, she said that preliminary information she had received was that the costs for items such as roads and the legal aspects of implementing windmills as an energy source would not be borne by the County.
Because of a full agenda, legislator Oliverio suggested that a more full presentation could be scheduled for August, and the topic was scheduled for that meeting. Before going to other agenda items, however, questions were raised as to whether the electricity provided would be more expensive, whether enough electricity could be provided to meet the County's needs and to where in Putnam the windmills could be located, many of the questions arising from a prior look into windmills as a source of energy.
A request for a position title change and concomitant salary upgrade in the Law Department became the focus of discussion during the legislature's Personnel Committee meeting, also held that evening.
Director of Personnel Paul Eldridge made the request, he said, because the position had remained unfilled for an extended period of time due to no one having applied for it given the responsibilities and workload for which, he said, the job level and salary seemed inadequate. He said that there were at least four current county employees qualified for the position who would not apply for it currently, but would apply if the position was upgraded.
Legislator Dan Birmingham as well as Legislator Mary Ellen Odell suggested that before the county increased a salary, the position should be offered to the general public at the current salary. The point was made that in light of county budget issues and high unemployment, the position might be filled at the current salary by a qualified candidate. All candidates would have to take and pass a qualification exam. Some discussion then followed on prior difficulties encountered in people having failed the exam and how long the position would remain open.
The discussion ended with a decision to send the request to the full legislature for a vote on whether to upgrade the position.
During a special meeting of the Putnam County Legislature that had been called for the same evening, the seven legislators present for that meeting, in a technical procedure, voted to adopt a Home Rule Request on the renewal of the .5 percent county sales tax increase of two years ago.
Because the request for renewal had now been given specific Bill numbers in both the State Senate and Assembly, it was necessary for the Legislature to re-approve the extension by referencing the Bill numbers. Legislators Vinny Tamagna and Robert McGuigan were absent for the vote. This renewal of the sales tax increase would run through November 30, 2009.
The July meetings of the Health and Personnel Committees will be posted on the PCN&R's website as soon as they become available.
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