Land of the F(r)ee

It's been a while since I put my thoughts down in this forum. I've been busy switching careers since my business was ripped right out from underneath me by some self serving, ego minded, power hungry municipal officals. All of that done without due process!

It began some fifteen years ago when the Town Board of the Town of Plattekill, NY approached me and wanted to enter into an accomidation that would benefit the Town and myself. It seemed that the elected officaldom of that Town Board wanted to extricate itself from the costly operation of running a solid waste facility. The Town felt it could save itself some $40,000 a year by turning over the operation to a private entity.

So I was asked if I would build, operate, and do what was necessary to run the operation for the Town without costing the Town a dime. The arrangement was that I would be given some "seed" money for materials and I would add the rest out of my pocket. The operation was mine and mine alone. The only caveat was that I adheared to the solid waste agreement between the Town and the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency (UCRRA). Profits were mine and the deficits were mine. No subsidys or bailouts. In return for this the Town was going to sell me the Transfer Station that I built for them so I could then expand the operation and provide an alternative operation to that provided by the UCRRA.

So over the intervening years the makeup of the Town Board changed. Contracts were drawn up, lawyers were paid, meetings were held and nothing moved forward. In the last few years finances became tighter. The UCRRA found new ways to fleece the operation without Town approval. I began in earnest to seek remedy from the Town. Sell me the property as we agreed or buy me out.

I also during this time period began to go head to head with the UCRRA on some real issues. Flow Control, Unfair competition in the Waste Industry by the UCRRA, and the fear and intimiation tactics employed by the UCRRA to protect their regime. I was slandered and blackballed by the management of the UCRRA. I even sued them for this and they settled out of court. They still to this day accuse me of "Criminal" activities, yet they shy away from my insistence of let's put it all before a judge and a jury if I'm so bad. They walk away! Are they really afraid of what would come out in court? Are they afraid that their entire empire would be swept away in an instant? Are they parading around in Ulster County like the emperor and his new clothes?

I really think that this agency and the Town both conspired, though not together in any organized fashion to put me out of business.

The UCRRA pushed the Town on my back bills. No doubt in my mind I was behind. Yet the Town would never sit down in the last three years to work out the difficulties that the operation was facing. They would quote me chapter and verse of our contract as to what I was doing wrong, but they wouldn't sit down and use the arbitration clause for any disputes. When I would ask about sitting down all I was told was "pay your bills"! I would ask "what about my equity and the value of the business?" The mantra was the same, "Pay Your Bills!"

So in March my office mysteriously is robbed, ransacked, and burned to the ground. And only the Supervisor comes to see what happens. I ask him at that time that "we" all need to sit down and come up with a plan for the situation for I had no insurance and no money. Again he say's, just "Pay Your Bills!"

Two weeks later, on April 1, the Town police show up and hand me a photo copy of a letter signed by the Deputy Town Supervisor informing me that the Town cancelled my contract in October 2008 and I was to be off the property will all of my property by March 31st!

Talk about a railroad job! These people think this is legal. I handed it right over to my attorney and he said don't worry they need to go through eviction proceedings and all kinds of legal mumbo jumbo and it could take years to have a resolution. Didn't happen. Two days later the UCRRA calls and asks what I'm doing answering the phone. I said, "Working." The Executive Director says to me that he was supposed to be coming down there to operate the place with one of my employees and that I had been put out on the street with all my toys. I recapped the events to him and tried to coax him to coming down and operating the place. I would have loved to put them into the lawsuit I saw transpiring. He said he'd have none of that and called the deputy supervisor.

Ten minutes later the Towns "Goon Squad" came in and told me to get out or I risked being arrested. I asked on what grounds and was told he had his orders from the deputy town supervisor. I informed him this was and illegal move on the Town's part and I wanted to see a judges signature. The Police Chief then came and we talked and I left. They locked the place up and told me not to come back.

When my attorney asked about the resolution that the Town Board passed to initiate this action, he received no response. No response and no more pressure for me to move the remainder of my property off the property.

It is so wonderful that in this country, founded on the premise of freedom and individual achievement that government could just sweep in and be so arrogant and self motivated that they could steal a person's livelihood right out from under him and attempt to get away with it.

America! Ya gotta just love it!