Plainfield Township News

The financial stakes for the planned closure of Grand Central Sanitary Landfill as it consumes the last available portion of space that was carefully planned and zoned for solid waste disposal are huge.  Let's look at 2009, the latest year for which statistics are publicly available for the amount of waste generated by Northampton County, disposed of in the landfill. The Northampton County Municipal Waste Management Plan 2010-2020 shows that in 2009, 43,046 tons of municipal solid waste generated in the county were disposed of at GCSL.  The Plan also shows that tipping fees received by GCSL were $105 per ton. For that year, Plainfield Township records reflect that 371,290 tons of solid waste were disposed of in the landfill.  Since the landfill operates roughly 5-1/2 days a week, this works out to 1298 tons per day.  At $105 per ton, the 2009 average daily income for an operating day is $136,290, and the income for 2009 is $38,985,450. It should be noted that in 2009...

 With six days until election, and having not made any effort to state a platform other than yard signs placed in some yards, candidate for the Plainfield Township Board of Supervisors Bob Cornman has sent out a mailer to voters.   When Mr. Cornman was interviewed by the Morning Call a week ago, and asked about his conflict of interest with Green Knight Economic Development Corporation, he stated that he would resign from Green Knight and devote his energies to the citizens of the township.  Mr. Cornman and current Supervisor Steve Hurni have been members of Green Knight since its founding in 1999.  Mr. Hurni has not made such a pledge yet, but he is in his tenth year serving as a township supervisor, and must abstain from all votes associated with Green Knight and Grand Central Sanitary Landfill.  Green Knight is a non-profit entity created by Waste Management to sell electricity generated by burning landfill gas to the grid. In responding to the Morning Call...

 There have been four Letters to the Editor published in the Morning Call and Express Times associated with the November 2, 2021 election of two Supervisors in Plainfield Township.  Elisa Robles-Carlo has submitted a fifth, yet to be published.  The authors of these letters have provided the full text so that they may appear here.  In July 2020, the Plainfield Township Board of Supervisors rejected a request by Waste Management to rezone farmland, so that the Grand Central Sanitary Landfill can be expanded.  14 months later, the landfill has done nothing to reveal its next move.  It would not make sense to return with the same proposal.  In August 2020, Plainfield Supervisor Steve Hurni, who is also the Green Knight Economic Development Corporation Secretary, announced at a Board of Supervisors meeting that he had requested the state Ethics Board to rule on if he has a conflict of interest if he votes on issues related to the landfill or Green Knigh...

  In 1999 Waste Management wanted to burn landfill gas from Grand Central Sanitary Landfill, and sell the electricity generated to the grid.  It created the Green Knight Economic Development Corporation (GKEDC).  Landfill spokespeople said that this entity was designed to be "apolitical".  A consequence of this is that Board members of GKEDC are not appointed by the three communities that GKEDC is supposed to represent: Pen Argyl, Wind Gap and Plainfield Township.  Originally, there were to be three Board members representing and living in each of the three communities.  Soon after inception, however, GKEDC changed its own charter so this was no longer a requirement.  Today, five board members live in Plainfield Township, one in Wind Gap and two in Pen Argyl.   There have been eight board members since two resigned four years ago during the Synagro sludge plant public relations disaster, and only one replacement was appointed by autonomous Gr...

ASGCO Manufacturing Headquarters, grand opening in August 2021 at 730 Bangor Road  In a certain circle in this area of the Slate Belt, you will hear grumbling that "Plainfield Township is not friendly to new businesses."  This false claim was repeated by Bob Cornman, another of the candidates in the election for township supervisor in an article published a few days ago in the Morning Call.  This is a narrative that simply does not fit the facts. Exhibit A is the newly constructed ASGCO Headquarters building at 730 Bangor Road, Plainfield Township, the site of the former NICOS Polymers Recycling business.  ASGCO is a light manufacturer of conveying products, and this site is in the township's light industrial zoning district.  The NICOS Polymers bulk recycling business was previously located here.  NICOS had constructed a spec building permitted as a "Commercial Use", and did not originally intend to have a bulk recycling use - which is not permitted in th...

 In 1988, Plainfield Township's Solid Waste zoning district was created, as a result of a request by Grand Central Sanitary Landfill to increase its size.  Thus involved many months of study by a Study Group of citizens and interested parties, with the advice of professional consultants.  Many residents did not want the landfill to be expanded.  The end result was that a significantly larger area than the landfill requested was zoned for solid waste, to allow for future expansions.  The principal cited by counsel was that the landfill should be able to expand until a "Fair Share" of land area was used - at which point the township would not be obligated to allot further space for a landfill.  The township's Comprehensive Plan reflects the area planned for solid waste, and the solid waste zoning district has identical boundaries as shown on the Zoning Map:  At the July 2020 hearing at which the Plainfield Township BOS rejected the landfill's request to ...

The four candidates for two seats on the Board of Supervisors were requested to respond to four questions, asked by a local news reporter.  Since there is no guarantee there will be a news article that includes my responses, I am posting them here, verbatim.  There was a 100-word limit to each response. 1. What types of businesses would you like to see generating tax revenue and jobs in the township? Our light industrial zone had been underutilized until a light manufacturer redeveloped lots on Engler Road and Bangor Road , which are planned to provide 50 to 70 good paying jobs.   I worked hard as a citizen to have the township adhere to its ordinances and not allow nuisance businesses that were not permitted by zoning to continue to operate or to develop these sites.   As a result, they were available and a world-class facility has replaced the destroyed NICOS building.   I would like to see more light manufacturers locate in the township.    2. ...

This is the question that a reader posed to the editor of the Express Times (Lehigh Valley Live) in Easton, PA: Area requested to be rezoned to Solid Waste in 2020, and rejected by Township BOS The reader cited four facts, and posted links to their sources, the Township Board minutes posted publicly (click link above to go to article, and links): In July 2020, the Plainfield Township Board of Supervisors (BOS) rejected Waste Management's request to rezone 211 acres of farmland to solid waste by a vote of 3-0-2.  Steve Hurni and Joyce Lambert abstained. In the following month of August, Mr. Hurni, who also serves on the Green Knight Economic Development Corporation's Board, announced that he had requested that the State Ethics Board Counsel rule on whether he did not have a conflict of interest in voting on matters related to Green Knight and the landfill.  This is despite the fact that for 8-1/2 years he has recused himself from such discussions and votes on the advice of the...