Exclusive Interview

Interview by Nathaniel Bauder

Design by Meena Janekrabuanhad

1. What’s your business?  What do you do there?

My business is the Hampton Inn by Hilton in Seneca Falls, NY.  My position is General Manager.

2.  Was your business in its location before Seneca Meadows? Was your business there before Tantalo’s?

My business was not here before Seneca Meadows.  We opened in July 2012.  

3. How does your location near the landfill impact your business?  What’s it like to live/ work next to the landfill?

The impact on our business is good and bad.  We get business from the landfill as far people coming to work there so that part is a positive.  The odor from the landfill is the biggest negative.  If the landfill is having a “bad day” as we call it then we have a bad day.  Our guests tend to be very upset when  they can smell the landfill.  We often refund money to our guests due to the odor.

4.  If you feel that aspects of the landfill’s operation have had a negative effect on your business, have you contacted/worked with the landfill to try to mitigate the effects?

We have contacted the landfill several times.  We have a number we call every time we can smell it at the hotel.  I have also met with some of the people over there to explain our issues and have them explain things better to me.

5. What has been the result?

They are almost always very helpful.  They send someone to the hotel to verify the smell and then they make adjustments to their system to try to fix it.  When I have met with them they showed me the plans for what they are doing to try to lessen the odor problem.

6. How do you feel about the expansion of the landfill?

I am not happy about the expansion.  I do worry we will continue to lose guests because of it.   On a personal note, we are moving away from the area because we don’t want to raise our family around the landfill and due to some of the research we have done that talks about health concerns when living next to a landfill.

7. Do you find the odor to be an issue?  How is it an issue?

Odor is the biggest issue.  We have guests who come here and tell us they will not return strictly due to the landfill.  This is disappointing because the finger lakes region is a beautiful area.

8. Has Seneca Meadows stated attempts to mitigate the odor had any effect?

We have seen a decrease in the number of times we have had to deal with the odor in the past few months.