MALONE — Franklin County officials are considering an agreement with a former scrap-metal dealer who was found guilty of 43 village-code violations in 2006.
Tim J. Carter, who owned the now-defunct Malone Metals at 50-60 Front St. in the Village of Malone, asked legislators’ permission to place a sign for a new recycling and redemption business on county property off Brewster Street.
He also offered to pave a section of county land on which he has a right-of-way.
Carter said his family’s business, Carter’s Trucking and Blacktopping in Morrisonville, would do the paving for the new business, TAP Industries.
Carter did not return repeated calls for comment.
Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Hugh Hill said TAP Industries is owned by Travis Pritchard, who recently gained a permit from the village to demolish a home at 57 Factory St., according to Village Board minutes.
Roland Carter is listed as the co-owner of that property, according to county’s Real Property Tax Service records, and he is owner of the paving business.
Pritchard also owns a vacant lot off Coffee Street, the records state.
“Currently, I am still setting up my facility here in the Village of Malone,” he said in an email to the Press-Republican. “I am working with the county to set my sign and (to) open my public access.
“I will be paving our access road this week,” he said.
He described the business as a “a new material-recycling facility opening in the very near future. This facility will include a bottle-redemption center and propane-refill station.”
NEAR COUNTY LOT
Legislator Guy “Tim” Smith (D-Fort Covington), chairman of the Buildings and Grounds Committee, said allowing the sign on a grassy portion of county property is a good idea as long as it complies with existing zoning and building codes.
“He wants to open immediately,” Smith said of Carter and the recycling business.
The site is the former Hugh Schickel Construction business off Railroad Street, near the former Glazier Meat property that the county purchased a few years ago and uses for an additional employee parking lot.
County Attorney Jonathan Miller was asked to draw up a limited-term agreement that gives the county the option to withdraw its permission for the sign if in the future it decides it needs to use that space.
Should the county OK the paving offer, Carter must also make sure the slope of the paving does not disturb drainage features already in place, and he must abide by whatever zoning and signage rules are in place, Miller said.
MANY VIOLATIONS
In the spring of 2006, Carter was fined $2,000 in Village Court to satisfy 43 outstanding village-code violations found at Malone Metals.
He was found guilty of violating an agreement he signed in March 2005 with the village’s Zoning Board of Appeals, which allowed him to open the scrap-metal business as long as he abided by the board’s terms.
The regulations required him to build a concrete slab on which to place vehicles while fluids were being drained from them so the liquid could not seep into the ground and cause contamination.
He was also to keep scrap metal in closed containers and get rid of vehicles within two days of being crushed.
But code-enforcement officials found Carter hadn’t met any of those stipulations and ticketed him more than 40 times for continued violations on follow-up inspections.
Carter told the court that he closed his business after two months because his anticipated scrap-metal market had dried up.
He said that meant any agreements he made with the village were null and void and freed him from the responsibility of maintaining the property.
The judge, the late Andrew Simays, disagreed. He found Carter guilty and fined him a reduced penalty of $2,000, which was paid in full on May 19, 2006, according to Village Court records.
Email Denise A. Raymo:
draymo@pressrepublican.com
