By Jeanne Sager
COCHECTON — September 5, 2006 — Even on Sundays, there are eyes on the county’s most desolate transfer station.
The Sullivan County Department of Solid Waste shut down its popular Sunday hours at its transfer stations countywide – but its Mitchell Pond East Road location in Cochecton was still getting traffic.
That is until the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department stepped in.
“There seemed to be some urban legend floating around that all you had to do was dump your garbage by the fence, and the DPW will take care of it,” said Undersheriff Eric Chaboty.
But everyone has to pay the landfill fees – and the county wasn’t about to swallow the cost of dumping extra trash.
So the Sheriff’s Department set up a patrol out in Cochecton, and Cpl. Luis Alvarez began collecting the plate numbers of everyone dropping their bags along the roadside.
The motorists were warned, and by the next week, traffic on Mitchell Pond East Road had dropped dramatically.
“Word spread very quickly,” Chaboty said. “We were prepared to make arrests the next weekend, but we didn’t have to.”
County spokeswoman Alexis Eggleton said the problems seemed to have started not after the county upped its tipping fees but after the hours were changed at the stations.
“The Sheriff’s Department has dramatically lessened the problem,” she said.