Saying they could see no compelling reason to authorize the re-opening of the landfill in Albion, Orleans County Planning Board members, at their regular meeting on March 27, denied a special use permit to Waste Management of New York.

"This board has a long record of looking at the comprehensive plans of the towns and it is my belief that this landfill is not consistent with those plans," County Planner Paul Hendel, from Murray, said.

Waste Management was seeking a special use permit to operate a 190 foot high landfill to be built next to the Orleans Sanitary and McKenna landfills.

In addition to the noise, the amount of truck traffic and the detriment to the community character, the visual impact to travelers along the Erie Canal is of concern. Planning board member Marty Busch, from Medina, said the landfill would be situated along the Erie Canal. "We are the stewards of the canal and we would be poor stewards indeed if we allowed this landfill to be operated," he said.

Carlton board representative Bob Brown said he was disappointed in the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Transportation. "They have so badly abandoned this community," he said. "If this was viable and Waste Management truly had the best of intentions, they would have looked for alternative sites and they would have sited it in the middle of nowhere."

Saying that every community should have its own landfill, planning board member Steven Freeman, from Yates, said, "No community should have to accept trash from other communities." Even if residents in the community were offered free trash pick-up, it just wouldn't be enough, Freeman said.

The special use permit denial drew a round of applause from the residents in attendance at the meeting.

The Albion Town Board will meet April 7 to vote on the landfill proposal. They can override the planning board's recommendation.