Newsletter #7-A
June 15, 2020
Apologies, resending due to incorrect subject heading
TONIGHT at 7 pm
Village of Endicott Board of Trustees Meeting
Meeting ID: 856 7623 3819
Dial in phone number: 1-929-436-2866
__________________________________________________________________
Jackson & Chapman want an incinerator
in the center of Endicott.
It’s not over! They still want it! They have not won!
Property values? May plummet & never recover
Safety plans? They prepared none
Health protections? No plans are in place
INCINERTOR PLANT
A lithium-ion battery incinerator from South Korea (named Sungeel) wants to open the nation’s very first battery incinerator plant in the middle of Endicott. Workers at their South Korean incinerator must wear hazmat suits and oxygen respirators. They want to rent the Huron building at the NE corner of East Franklin St and Robble Ave. Residential homes with children are only 50 feet away. The Johnny Logan Little League field is only 25 feet away, followed by the Z-swimming pool, 5 other baseball fields, the concert band shell, and the historic carousel.
ZONING
Endicott citizens have always been well protected in the past because that property is zoned Industrial which prohibits these types of businesses. However, the mayor (Linda Jackson) and her deputy mayor (Cheryl Chapman) are on a scorched-earth campaign to change the zoning and lay out the red carpet for unlimited battery incinerators.
BUILDING PERMIT
A building permit is required to do anything at the property and it can only be issued by Endicott. Jackson and Chapman are trying to change the Endicott laws to make it legal for them to get one.
AIR QUALITY PERMIT
The 2
nd
permit they need is an air quality permit that only can be issued by the NYS DEC. DEC issued one in March but immediately revoked it. Why? -- because the incinerator company hid the fact that lithium-ion batteries contain PFAS, the most dangerous chemical known to science. Regardless of what Chapman tells you, the DEC has no authority, and is not able, to issue any kind of Endicott permit.
MAYOR & DEPUTY MAYOR
Jackson and Chapman are obsessed with getting a special law passed to allow an unlimited number of battery incinerators in every Industrial zoned district ( the entire Huron campus, Badger Avenue at the tracks, Page Avenue at the tracks, and the airport). In February they met with the Korean company and signed on as their biggest, and only, fans. The company would have only 20 jobs and would rent a Huron building (so they would pay no taxes). Jackson and Chapman have refused to name how the village would benefit. They have also ignored all attempts to put any health standards or rules, any safety rules, or any guidelines on anything in place for the company.
OVERWHELMING OPPOSITION
Jackson and Chapman are fighting tooth & nail to help the incinerator move here. Virtually 99% of the Endicott residents irately oppose them. An online petition against them has over 4,000 signatures. 154 environmental organizations worldwide have signed a letter against them. The past two mayors, from opposite parties, publicly announced their opposition to them.
LAW VOTED IN
On May 7 Jackson and Chapman (with Eileen Konecny) voted for a special law to make battery incinerators legal in every Industrial zoned district. They refuse to disclose their real reason to put incinerators in the center of the village that will spew dioxins and PFAS onto homes and children.
THEN CAME CHAPMAN’S AND JACKSON’S RUSE ?
In the past 90 days Jackson & Chapman have turned the village upside down pushing for the incinerator. Many say they have totally destroyed their own reputations and credibility. However, they proceeded to make it even worse.
They wanted to quiet the huge outcry from all the residents so they came to the June 1 meeting and voted for the attorney to prepare paperwork to rescind their own law. They made it look like they had given up. Many observers immediately said it appeared to be a cleverly crafted scheme.
Here’s how they described the scheme: The process to rescind the law will take six weeks – until about July 25. However, the results of the petition signatures will be ready in just three weeks (July 1). It will show there were NOT enough signatures -- so the new zoning law immediately becomes valid. This is three weeks before they rescind it. During that small window while the new law is valid, the incinerator company can quickly get a building permit.
At that point Chapman and Jackson can do 2 things – (but either way, the company will still have a building permit): 1) They can cancel their ruse of rescinding the law and keep the new law. OR 2) They can play it out and go through with rescinding the law.
So here’s the ruse: the incinerator would have received a building permit while the law was valid. So, if the law gets rescinded a few weeks later, it would not stop the incinerator because they would be grandfathered in by getting a permit under the new law during the short time it was in effect.
A common question many are asking – have you ever heard of 2 elected officials pulling a fast one on their own village? Also, how can Chapman turn around and ask people for their vote for Trustee in four months if she supports Linda’s push for a toxic incinerator plant?
KONECNY PROVIDED PROOF
On June 3 Eileen Konecny appeared to give proof the three of them are pulling a devious fast-one one on fellow residents when she slipped and was quoted as saying with a laugh “rescinding the law won’t stop the company, they’re still coming here anyway.”
PLACES TO FIND MORE INFORMATION:
CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT
An attorney gave the village an official notice that citizens are signing up for a pending lawsuit to stop the Jackson/Chapman incinerator campaign and they claim there are solid grounds for a suit.
GOFUNDME
Local residents who are afraid for the health and safety of Endicott children, and who are outraged their property values will plummet, set up a GOFUNDME site to support the lawsuit.
__________________________________________________________________
