Cascino lawyer says waste went to Mass. ‘farm’

HUDSON—Is it the right stuff? And did he take it to the right place?

Those are two crucial questions the judge wants answered in the continuing legal saga of Salvatore Cascino and the 9,650 cubic yards of solid waste the court determined that he illegally dumped on his Copake property.

Mr. Cascino, 77, of Larchmont in Westchester County, has spent the past 19 years racking up violations of federal, state and town laws for illegal dumping, building and excavating at a place he calls Copake Valley Farm along the east side of Route 22 in Copake. Read more…

Part 1: Founding and Operation

FEW DRIVERS RIDING ALONG ROUTE 23 think of it as they proceed along the road. But from 1800-1906 before there were cars (trains came in mid-19th century), Route 23 was the privately owned Columbia Turnpike, one of hundreds of such roads constructed and maintained by stockholder corporations. In the 19th century as many as 3,200 such companies operated in the U.S., vastly improving conditions for travelers.

Why did towns turn to private investors? The problem was that before the 1790s, neither local nor state governments had the employees or the organization to build roads. Instead, townships imposed a road labor tax on eligible males, slightly reminiscent of European feudal practice, a minimum of three days of roadwork per year in New York State. The alternative was for a man to pay 62 cents a day to get out of the obligation.

Government funding to build the roads was difficult to come up with and road conditions were often inadequate. In rainy weather or after snowstorms the roads were frequently impassable. Travelers in horse-drawn vehicles often encountered stumps which, in muddy areas, periodically left wagons and carriages stranded on them, leading to the phrase, “We’re stumped.” Read more…