Good News You May Have Missed

County Board Hears Airport Update, Debates Casella Fuel Subsidies

By BILL BELLEN
OTSEGO COUNTY

Before the June 3 meeting of the Otsego County Board of Representatives was called to order, a public hearing was held regarding Otsego County’s application for $300,000.00 in Community Development Block Grants. These funds—which are supplied by the federal government and administered by the New York State Office of Community Renewal—are intended to support low- and moderate-income communities and will be distributed in the form of a microenterprise assistance program. Audience members offered no comments.

The board presented 22-year Otsego County Prosecutor John Muehl with a token of appreciation for his years of service in honor of his retirement at the end of 2025. Muehl thanked the board and expressed his passion for the profession.

“The office is in great shape,” Muehl said. “We have a great new DA coming up. The community will continue to be well served, which also makes me very happy.”

During the privilege of the floor, Aaron Mateunas, a former corrections officer, spoke about the recent arrest of Lieutenant Thomas Fellrath. Mateunas expressed his frustration with the case, sharing how upsetting it was seeing the third-highest officer in the Sheriff’s Office being caught with illicit substances while on taxpayers’ payroll. Mateunas echoed community concerns of lacking oversight within the Sheriff’s Office, questioning how abnormal travel on GPS-tracked vehicles went unnoticed and how someone of such rank felt confident enough to act this way.

“Was this routine, just neglect or something else?” Mateunas asked.

The board then transitioned to a presentation by Justin Osterhoudt, chairman of the Oneonta Municipal Airport Commission, and Matt Kent, the airport’s manager. Board Chairman Edwin Frazier Jr. reminded the audience that negotiations were held with the Airport Commission previously, with the county declining to take control of their operations and instead offering potential aid if two county officials were placed on the commission. Rep. Richard Brockway, who represents the district the airport is located in, and Otsego County IT Director Isaiah Gibbs, who has experience previously working for the Federal Aviation Administration, now fill those seats.

Osterhoudt shared that on-site obstruction removal and the fuel farm replacement are finished and nearing completion respectively, with the construction of a parallel taxiway now approved. Osterhoudt and Kent repeatedly cited lacking infrastructure and airway obstructions as the primary impediments to the airport’s operation, estimating three-fourths of potential traffic was unable to use the facility.

To combat homeowner concerns, Osterhoudt said the City of Oneonta funded aerial imagery of the airport and impacted off-site areas to better establish where easements would be needed and help facilitate negotiations with property owners. Rep. Leslie Berliant questioned what would happen if neighbors refused to negotiate, to which Kent made comparisons between tree removal in the airway and tree removal on I-88.

When she continued and asked whether the obstruction removal would happen regardless of the outcome of negotiations, Kent said “It needs to happen one way or another.”

Osterhoudt said there are hopes that a fund would be created to help finance the replanting and reforesting of new vegetation that will not impede on airway clearance in any areas with potential clearcutting.

During her report for the Human Services Committee, Rep. Adrienne Martini noted the Code Blue statistics for the 2025-2026 winter season. She shared that 721 hotel beds were utilized to house individuals throughout the season. This far surpassed numbers seen in previous years, with 247 hotel beds being used in the 2024-2025 season and 144 being used during the same window in 2023-2024. Martini said it is unclear now why there was such a dramatic increase aside from this winter’s intensity, noting that trends had not yet been compared between counties.

Tensions between board members emerged during Rep. James Powers’ presentation of the Solid Waste and Environmental Concerns Committee report. Rep. Eamonn Hinchey raised concerns about Resolution 242, which was brought forth by the committee. The resolution stipulated that the county would, for the next six months, subsidize, “per ton of solid waste collected, the difference of the price of diesel fuel for Casella when the Energy Information Administration (EIA) Index exceeds $4.50/gallon, not to exceed a difference of $1.75.” Hinchey criticized subsidies for a company of Casella’s size, highlighting that their earnings were up 10 percent in the first quarter of the year to $457 million. Berliant further emphasized Casella’s scale as a $1.87 billion company, saying they have “been on a buying spree” of other companies and that their revenue saw rapid growth in the past 12 months.

Discussion on Res. 242 continued following the approval of the consent agenda, with Berliant saying she could not support a large corporation while towns and villages in Otsego County are consistently dealing with budgetary shortfalls. Rep. Andrew Marietta explained that the current contract with Casella supported such action, while Rep. Margaret Kennedy spoke to the value of being a good business partner. Powers said that he has been an advocate for affordable trash collection in the county and that he would “rather pay this price and know what it is and make the situation be stable.”

After an extended back and forth between representatives, the final vote fell largely along party lines, with Marietta being the only Democrat in support of the measure. The board’s weighted vote system placed the final count at 61 ayes and 39 noes.

Hinchey also spoke against Res. 244, a resolution in support of New York State forests and in opposition to State Senator Rachel May’s bill, S.4408. May’s bill would permit construction of transmission and distribution lines in state reforestation areas to aid in developing renewable energy facilities in locations otherwise inaccessible to the wider grid. Hinchey said that he was fully in support of provisions of the county’s resolution promoting the integrity of New York’s forests and preventing rural communities from being disproportionately affected by new development. He explained his opposition came from the officials applauding Climate Smart programs in the county while disapproving of the Climate Smart interconnection plans across the state that this bill could entail, as well as what he described as a “preservation mindset” rather than one of environmental conservation.

“We’d actually potentially be creating new types of habitats on the land by making transmission lines like meadows, which have a higher biodiversity than forests,” Hinchey said. “I think it’s just an oversight in the support here.”

The final vote tallied 82 ayes and 18 noes, with Hinchey and Brockway dissenting.

After approving late resolutions, including one honoring the Cooperstown boys basketball team for their state championship title, the board moved into executive session, where it would conclude the meeting.

The June 3 meeting can be viewed in its entirety at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PtSAA4VgW0&t=365s.