Diane Walden is reporting in The Columbia Paper despite being locked up in the Columbia County Jail, Salvatore Cascino [kah-SHEE-no] has been fined $10,000 for dumping. The 77-year-old from Larchmont, Westchester County, was sentenced June 8 on his conviction for operating a solid waste management facility without a permit at his property in Copake. Cascino has battled local officials for 19 years over violations of federal, state, and town laws for illegal dumping, building, and excavating at the place he calls Copake Valley Farms, located on the east side of Route 22. In rendering the sentence, town Justice Glenn R. Schermerhorn said he did not think imprisonment was an appropriate punishment for Cascino, who has been in the Columbia County Jail for nearly a year. “A fine, however, may serve to remind the defendant to operate his business interests within the parameters set forth by codes, regulations and laws,” the judge said. He imposed a fine of $10,000 based on a one-day violation. Following sentencing, Cascino was returned to the county jail, where he has been incarcerated on criminal and civil contempt charges for nearly a full year. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.