State overseeing cleanup of former tire business on Route 143

COEYMANS HOLLOW — Cleanup has begun on the site of the former RAK Tire Recovery on State Route 143 in Coeymans Hollow.

The cleanup, which will cost roughly $225,000 and is being paid by the state, is being handled by Carver Construction as part of a larger statewide cleanup initiative of some 20-25 sites across the state, through a three-year contract, according to George McHugh, general counsel for Carver Companies.

“The state of New York put out for bid statewide a contract for the removal of old tires at tire dumps, and Carver Construction was awarded the contract,” McHugh said. “Now, we are going around the state at various locations designated by the state and we are cleaning them up. This is one of those sites.”

The cost of the cleanup is paid by New York state. The town will not pay anything toward the project.

The Coeymans Town Council has been trying for at least three years to get the site cleaned up, according to Deputy Town Supervisor Tom Dolan. Dolan said the selection of Carver Construction — whose parent company, Carver Companies, owns the Port of Coeymans — is “entirely coincidental.”

The town did not have any involvement in the bidding process or the company that was ultimately selected to conduct the cleanup, Dolan said.

“It’s coincidental that it’s Carver [Construction] doing the work,” Dolan said. “It was a statewide project, so it’s just coincidental that it was a local company. The town didn’t have anything to do with the awarding of the bid one way or the other. We have been in constant contact with the state regarding the removal of the tires, but the wheels of the state grind very slowly.”

Dolan said the town has been trying to get the site cleaned up since at least 2015.

The RAK Tire Recovery site is the second of the roughly two dozen sites across the state that Carver Construction is scheduled to clean up, according to McHugh.

RAK Tire Recovery was owned by Rodney Krzykowki, a former local businessman and one-time member of the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District’s Board of Education. He died several years ago, leaving the property’s future in question.

For several years, Krzykowski declined to pay property taxes, and the property was left littered with what are thought to be thousands of discarded tires. Dolan said it was his understanding that the property’s ownership is unclear.

“When Rodney [Krzykowski] died, it should have passed on to his heirs, however they declined to accept it, so it is unclear right now who owns it,” Dolan said. “The county has never foreclosed on it, even though it went many years with no taxes being paid. My guess is they didn’t want to inherit the problem of the tires.”

“My understanding is for the state to proceed [with the cleanup], the heirs had to decline the property,” Dolan added.

This phase of the property’s cleanup, which is being paid for by the state and is being overseen by the Department of Environmental Conservation, will only address the issue of the tires on the site, McHugh said. It is estimated that there is roughly 960,000 pounds of tires on the property.

McHugh said the tires are being rounded up and will be shredded, and then transported by truck to Seneca Meadows near Syracuse, to a “state-approved dumping site for hazardous waste,” McHugh said.

“This is just another example of Carver Companies helping clean up Coeymans,” McHugh said.

The state, which is paying the $225,000 price tag to clean up the Coeymans Hollow property, will only cover removal of the tires. Next will come the disposal of the numerous trucks, cars and other vehicles that have been on the site since Krzykowski’s death.

Dolan said that part of the cleanup will be handled by the town.

“The town has the authority, both through town and vehicle and traffic law, to have those cars taken off the property and scrap them,” Dolan said. “The town will issue an RFP (Request for Proposal) for someone to come and take the vehicles, and they can scrap them. Once we know the full extent of what cars, trucks and trailers are there, we will put out a bid for someone to come take the cars and they would get the money from the scrap. We can’t do anything about that until all the tires are off the property and out of the vehicles.”

Tires are strewn all over the property, both on the ground and piled into the many vehicles that are parked on the site.

The contractor hired to remove the vehicles would pay the town and would then tow the vehicles away, turning them into scrap.

Town Supervisor Philip Crandall said he was happy the site is finally being cleaned up.

“The Town Board and I are extremely happy about the news of this finally coming to fruition,” Crandall said. “Over the past few years, myself, the town board along with [Building Inspector/Code Enforcement Officer] John Cashin have made a constant effort, along with the New York state departments, to get things moving along in order to follow through on improvements to our community. We are pleased to see Carver awarded this bid and look forward to the wonderful contributions they will make to better the residents of our town.”

John Cerone, construction inspector with the New York State Office of General Services, was on the site last week overseeing the cleanup effort. Thousands of discarded tires were being collected and placed into a pile using an excavator.

“We are not sure how many tires are on the site,” Cerone said. “There are estimates of 6,000 all the way to 12,000.”

At press time, Cerone projected the tire collection and shredding would take roughly six to seven days. Work started early last week, with Carver Construction trucks first arriving on the property last Monday, Cerone said.

Cerone added that tires were dispersed across the site, and some might even be buried underground. Only “visible” tires were being removed, and the property is not slated to be excavated for any possible buried tires, Cerone said.

Shredding of the tires was projected at press time to begin Monday.