The Otsego County Planning Department presented a proposal to rebuild the waste management Southern Transfer Station at 75 Silas Lane in Oneonta.
The current facility sustained storm damage in 2025, according to application documents filed by the county planning department and dated June 4. The plan would be to tear down the existing transfer station building and construct a new 5,700-square-foot transfer building, redirect the traffic pattern and pave an additional 54,450 square feet, the application stated.
Tammie Harris, Otsego County’s Planning Department director, said at the June 11 meeting of the county Board of Representatives’ Solid Waste and Environmental Concerns Committee that bids returned for the overall project totaled $6,454,596.
The city of Oneonta’s Planning Commission voted Wednesday, June 17 to deem the application complete. The commission also approved the State Environmental Quality Review, structure demolition, to increase in impervious surface and the site plan review for the project.
Christopher Lynch of Delta Engineers, Architects and Surveyors presented project details on behalf of the county Planning Department to the city Planning Commission. Harris and Kyle King, waste management and recycling coordinator, also represented the county.
“The current transfer building has taken on some damage in the last year and a half,” Lynch said, adding that the repairs to it have a life expectancy of the next six to 12 months. “The county’s been planning to replace this building.”
Harris said that “the existing building is approaching 40 years old, and the waste truck technology has changed substantially.” She said that trucks are having trouble fitting into the building.
Demolishing the current transfer station would allow the county to “start talking about increasing our capacity for waste diversion, since we don’t have a landfill in the county” and to offer more programs.
Lynch said the project’s traffic flow changes would make it easier for residential and commercial traffic to navigate the facility, including by reducing places where traffic may intersect. It would also create a new area for a facility attendant to see incoming traffic.
“Right now, they’re using pretty much a Home Depot shed with a propane heater,” he said.
Lynch said that during construction, which would “hopefully start by the end of July and be done by the end of the year,” the facility will still remain operational with limited service interruption.
“That’s stipulated in the contract for the bids that we received,” he said.
Harris added that there might be “a day or two here, where, because of certain types of work” the facility is closed with advanced notice. “No prolonged closures is the plan,” she said.
To learn more about the project, review application documents at tinyurl.com/oneontatransfer.