Webster Town Board votes to halt its renewable natural gas project

The Webster Town Board voted Thursday to stop its renewable natural gas project, ending the roughly $9 million plan to capture and sell the gas produced at the town's wastewater treatment plant. The board approved a resolution to immediately cease all work by third-party vendors on the project and to rescind authorization to pay for work not yet performed. Town Attorney Kyle Taylor confirmed the resolution would effectively end the project.

The board voted 3 to 2 to end the project. Councilman John Cahill, Councilwoman Jennifer Wright, and Councilman Garrett Wagner voted to cease payments; Supervisor Alexander Scialdone and Councilman Nicholas Hunter voted no.

The RNG project was an add-on to Webster's larger wastewater treatment plant upgrade. The town's digesters give off gas as they break down sewage, and Webster currently flares, or burns off, most of it. The project would have captured that biogas, refined it to pipeline quality, and sold it. A November 2025 presentation put the added cost at about $9 million and projected a federal investment tax credit of $6.8 million to $8.5 million to offset much of it, leaving the net cost dependent on whether that credit came through. In February, the board hired the firm MS Consultants, in a contract worth up to $121,500, to verify whether the project qualified for the credit, with a written right to stop the work if it did not.

Other business

A school resource officer contract, tabled. The board postponed a vote on a 2026-27 school resource officer agreement with the Webster Central School District after members could not locate this year's signed agreement to review before voting. Councilman Garrett Wagner, joined by Hunter, said the board and its attorney should review the actual document first. The police chief confirmed the matter was not time-sensitive, and the board rescheduled the vote to July 16.

A Verizon cell-tower review, approved. The board authorized an independent radio-frequency engineering review of two proposed Verizon cell tower sites, to be performed by consultant William P. Johnson and reimbursed by Verizon Wireless. The matter returned after being held over from June 18. Town staff said about 10 firms were solicited and one responded. The board approved the original scope, a review of Verizon's propagation data, after Verizon declined to pay for additional independent drive testing; the board left open the option of adding drive testing later if the first report shows gaps. An attorney speaking in public comment, David Rasmussen, urged the board to require independent drive-test data as well, saying the review is only as good as the data it examines.

Two grant applications, authorized. The board approved two applications. One is to the Monroe County Community Climate Action Fund for up to $10,000 to replace about 3.4 acres of town roadside grass with low- or no-mow native plantings; the board set the required local match at the 50 percent minimum, or $5,000, declining to put in more. The other is a $150,000 Consolidated Funding Application to New York State's Smart Growth Community Planning Program to fund the next phase of the town's comprehensive plan, the zoning-code update; the board voted to meet the 25 percent match in-kind through staff time rather than in cash.

A Parks position, reclassified. The board reclassified a part-time laborer position at Parks and Recreation into a part-time cleaner position to cover the 1 to 9 p.m. gap at the recreation center, which liaison Councilwoman Wright said had gone uncovered amid rising membership.

Consent items. The board approved its June 18 minutes, the bills, a prepaid warrant, purchase orders, and a fill permit for a residential landscaping project at 430 Pellett Road. It also accepted the resignations of Hugh Lee and David Paine from the Board of Assessment Review, effective July 1, leaving two seats open on the panel that hears residents' challenges to their property assessments. The Ledger recently explained how the Board of Assessment Review works.

A dog-shelter crisis takes center stage at the workshop

At an earlier workshop, the police chief and the town's animal control officer laid out a growing problem with Webster's animal sheltering. The town's single approved kennel is rated only for 24-hour holds, but one dog has been held there for 17 days. In the past day, the officials said, the animal went into heat distress overnight in a non-air-conditioned equipment bay and had to be moved.

The officials traced the problem to 2023 and 2024, when the veterinary service the town had relied on for sheltering was bought out and stopped offering it. At the same time, New York's Department of Agriculture and Markets raised its shelter standards, with a compliance deadline of December 2026. After that, the officials said, violations carry civil penalties and the town could face suspension of its shelter operations.

The town holds a $400,000 state grant toward building a shelter, but cost estimates for a standalone or retrofit facility have ranged from about $1 million to $1.5 million. An effort to share a shelter with neighboring towns collapsed after Irondequoit, the leading partner, withdrew.

Cahill pressed for a cost-per-dog comparison with other municipalities and criticized an earlier estimate that relied on a single engineering firm and a hand-drawn sketch. Hunter noted the town's worst-case exposure to fines and argued a capital project may be unavoidable to stay compliant. The board agreed that any construction would go out to a full request for proposals rather than to a single firm, and the supervisor said he would poll other Monroe County supervisors on their shelter costs and dog counts.

Public comment

Eight residents spoke. Comments centered on town spending and debt, the proposed Verizon towers, and the animal shelter.

Chris Nacca urged the town to build public awareness of the kennel problem and floated lower-cost options, such as renovating a vacant storefront. David Rasmussen, an attorney whose family lives near a proposed Verizon site, supported the engineering review but pressed for independent drive-test data. Sean Hanna criticized the RNG project as built on projections set against the town's debt, drew an unfavorable comparison with neighboring Perinton's finances, and condemned the RG&E contract; he also urged the board to heed residents on the proposed cell towers or risk a lawsuit like an earlier one over a solar project. Peter Elder criticized what he called baseless online attacks on two former town supervisors, Ron Nesbitt and Cathy Thomas, saying whoever maligned them should be ashamed. Emily Yang of the group Color Webster Green and Conservation Board chair Dennis Gorlick both backed the native-plantings project; Gorlick suggested a town-run shelter could earn revenue by boarding animals for other municipalities.

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