Sarah Trafton reports in Columbia-Greene Media that top officials in both the Town of Catskill and the Village of Catskill have spoken favorably about a proposed ash landfill in Catskill. Catskill Town Supervisor Doreen Davis wrote in a Feb. 7 letter to Mark Schwartz, senior manager of business development for the company proposing the landfill, Wheelabrator, that, "A new industry to replace the previous presence of cement plants would be a welcome addition to our community. We will await all the important work that focuses on the science and meets the technical demands of the various departments within the state’s regulatory organizations...We are committed to working with you as partners pending the regulatory review.” After a Jan. 23 meeting between Wheelabrator and the Village of Catskill board, Village President Vince Seeley said, “There is potential windfall from a financial perspective for the village.” While the elected leaders of both the Village and Town of Catskill have not publicly criticized the project, there is a growing group of opposition among their constituents. They have held large meetings at the Catskill Community Center and the First Reformed Church, with a third meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. May 17 at an undetermined location. None of those activists, though, spoke up at the May 7 Town of Catskill meeting, which included a public comment period. Wheelabrator Technologies hopes to lease 158 acres on Route 9W in Smith’s Landing, near the Hudson River. The site includes a former quarry owned by Peckham Materials, Inc., where Wheelabrator wants to truck in 445,000 tons of ash annually from its incinerators in Peekskill, Hudson Falls, and Poughkeepsie for almost 50 years. Currently, the Department of Environmental Conservation is looking at the landfill proposal, and both the Town of Catskill and the Village of Catskill would need to sign off on different parts of the plan. Read the full story at HudsonValley360.com.