Valley View Road site sold after cleanup, but its future unknown

By ELIZABETH COOPER

Observer-Dispatch

Posted Jul 13, 2009 @ 11:48 AM

NEW HARTFORD —

A 2.3-acre site on Valley View Road that has been subject to environmental cleanup has been sold at auction because of unpaid property taxes, Oneida County records show.

The site at 204 Valley View Road, which formerly housed a septic service run by Stanley Scully, has been on the state’s registry of inactive hazardous waste disposal sites since 1986.

But in February, it was announced the site soon would be ready for development after a $20 million cleanup.

It’s not clear who has purchased the land. Oneida County Finance Commissioner Anthony Carvelli would say only that Glen Acres Corp. was the high bidder at $33,000 at a June 25 auction.

Information about the principals of the corporation was not immediately available, and it could not be learned what plans were in store for the site, which is in a residential area.

It’s possible that in the 1960s and 1970s, Scully accepted waste from the General Electric plant on French Road. Lockheed Martin, which later purchased GE’s aerospace business, assumed responsibility for the cleanup.

A Lockheed spokeswoman said the roughly $20 million cleanup was complete, and the company was working with the state on follow-up testing.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation is now in the process of doing water testing on the property to see if there are lingering contaminants, DEC Regional Hazardous Waste Remediation Engineer Peter Taylor said.

He said Lockheed had “basically left it a clean site,” and if the water tests come back clean, the DEC will delist the site.

Asked whether it would be safe for a family to live in a home on the property, Taylor said if the site is delisted, there won’t be any restrictions on the land’s future use.

Former property owner Salvatore Tuzzolino said he had wanted to build a second home on the parcel.

He expressed outrage that the land had been sold at auction. He said he had believed he was in negotiations with the county over a possible tax break, and felt the county had “essentially stole $33,000 from me.”

“I tried to make a plea to them to either reduce my taxes or give me some sort of tax amnesty,” Tuzzolino said, noting the property’s environmental issues.

County Finance Commissioner Anthony Carvelli said Tuzzolino owed about $5,000 in back taxes, and the property had been delinquent since 2005 before Tuzzolino bought it.

He said Tuzzolino had plenty of warning about the situation.

Tuzzolino purchased the property in 2006 for $2,000, New Hartford Assessor Paul Smith said.