4/17/2023 0 Comments Morning sentinel waterville.meThat same year, the DEC fined the company for over 30 violations, mostly for sloppily handling hazardous waste.īut from Ed and Sylvia's perspective, nothing changed. In 2002, the company pleaded guilty to environmental crimes, after being caught dumping oil, diesel fuel and polluted water down a storm drain. The decades passed, the complaints continued and Norlite frequently was cited for some environmental offense or another. It was like they didn't exist, or didn't matter. Who was looking out for the plant's neighbors? The state allowed a company to burn toxic materials in the midst of a Cohoes community that by then included residents of Saratoga Sites, built in the 1960s. It was in 1977 when Norlite started burning hazardous waste. The state would show some interest in the complaints, promises would be made about how Norlite would be made to clean up its act, and yet nothing really would change as the Sokols continued living in the shadow of the smokestacks, raising their two children and doing their best to live the good life. The man retrieved the filter, left without saying a word and the Sokols never heard more, despite their phone calls.Ī pattern emerged. One time, Ed Sokol told me, a man from the state Department of Environmental Conservation arrived to set up what appeared to be an air filter on the Sokols' property and told Ed to call him if it turned black. But nobody seemed to take their complaints seriously. Ed and his wife Sylvia complained and even circulated petitions demanding the company clean up its act. Norlite, which opened in 1957, was covering the Cohoes neighborhood in dust from its piles of gravel and other aggregates. It didn't seem a reason to worry.īy the 1960s, that had changed. But the site that would become Norlite was just a small excavating outfit then. The farm had already vanished when Sokol, then in his 20s and newly married, began building a home for his family on land gifted to him by his father. Officers from Waterville and Winslow responded."I've experienced just about everything Norlite can give," the 89-year-old told me. Saturday, with someone at the campus apartments reporting shots were heard at the building and blood was on the floor, according to the affidavit. Police received a 911 call at about 1:30 a.m. Colby emergency medical services then arrived. The man helping Gifford told the two people to leave and then took off his shirt to stop the bleeding on Gifford’s head. The rounds hit walls in the hallway.Ī man who had helped Gifford after the gunfire told Cloutier that after Gifford fired the gun, two people began yelling at Gifford and one of them flashed a handgun and punched Gifford, after which Gifford reloaded his handgun, according to the affidavit. Gifford told Cloutier that when he was hit in the head, he fired a Ruger 9 mm handgun two or three times at the man who had struck him with the bottle. “Andrew told me that the whole reason he carries (a handgun) is for situations like that,” Cloutier wrote in the affidavit. He said that is when the man hit Gifford in the head with what Gifford thought was a vodka bottle. Gifford said they were following a vehicle in which his foster sister’s ex-boyfriend was traveling.Īt the party, Gifford did not consume alcohol or “weed” and was helping to check IDs at the door when he turned around and saw the ex-boyfriend, he told police. The friend later told Gifford about a party at Colby, so they and another friend drove to the college’s apartments. Gifford told Cloutier a friend had asked him last Friday to go to bars in Waterville. Gifford also told Cloutier that he had stopped drinking, but began drinking beer again over the past two to three weeks. Gifford told Cloutier that since then, he has felt he “always has to look around and cover his back,” which is why he carried a handgun, according to the affidavit. The ex-boyfriend was reportedly “aggressive” with Gifford’s foster sister, and he and Gifford had fought over it at that time. Waterville police Detective Duane Cloutier collected evidence at the scene and later interviewed Gifford at the police station.Ĭloutier wrote in the affidavit that Gifford had told him the man who is alleged to have hit Gifford in the head before the gunfire dated Gifford’s foster sister about five years ago. Gifford and the others involved in the altercation were not Colby students, police said. Patrick’s Day, according to a Colby student. The party at which the shooting occurred is known as “Doghead,” and is held by students annually on the closest Friday to St.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |