Sullivan not quite ready to sign on with three-county waste authority

MONTICELLO – GUS is not yet getting a warm reception in Sullivan County.  It’s more of a ‘wait and see’ position.
GUS is the nickname for a proposed Green-Ulster-Sullivan Solid Waste Authority.
The idea, proposed earlier this year by Ulster County Legislature Chairman Kenneth Ronk, was discussed at Thursday’s Sullivan County Legislature Public Works Committee meeting.
Legislator Terri Ward is not ready.
“I’d like to see a solution or a set of solutions before they go through the trouble of creating the public authority,” Ward said.
Legislator Scott Samuelson wants the conversation to continue.
“We can just keep discussing until then it becomes a moment that when we have to pull the trigger and if we’re not comfortable at that point, then we don’t, but I think that we need, we owe it to ourselves for us to be a part of the conversation,” Samuelson said.
County Attorney Cheryl McCausland said it may be time for some outside advice.
“I think the type of analysis that needs to be done is probably, and I hate to have a consultant to add an expense to this, but to have a consultant look at this and say these are your options,” McCausland said.
Other legislators said there is some expertise within county departments, including Public Works, and that’s where most of the thinking needs to be done.