Town man renews crematory complaints

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Ron Labuda, left, and his father, Joe Labuda stand in their backyard, behind Amigone Funeral home in this file photo from Sept. 2009. FILE PHOTO
The smokestack from the Amigone Funeral Home's crematory, as seen from a neighbor's yard in this Sept. 2009 file photo. Residents near the Sheridan Drive location in the Town of Tonawanda say fumes from the smokestack create a nuisance. The smokestack is 17 feet tall, which is taller than state requirements. FILE PHOTO

February 1, 2012

By Neale Gulley The Tonawanda News The Tonawanda News Wed Feb 01, 2012, 01:07 AM EST

TOWN OF TONAWANDA — A Town of Tonawanda man who has long fought town hall over concerns he has with smoke from a nearby crematory recently appealed to the state’s Attorney General for help.

For two decades, Ron Labuda of 63 Werkley Road has contacted the town, Department of Environmental Conservation, town board members and lawyers in an effort to curb noxious smoke generated by the burning of human remains at Amigone Funeral Home.

Labuda lives within feet of the 2600 Sheridan Drive location, where dead bodies are cremated “once or twice a week,” he said.

For years, despite the funeral home’s willingness to comply with changes to its state-of-the-art facility — including raising its smokestack in recent years — the fixes have fallen short, he said.

However, a new state nuisance law was passed last year, prompting Labuda to collect more than 30 affidavits in June from other nearby residents who have similarly born the brunt of the smoke, containing what he described as an acrid chlorine-like smell.

The affidavits have since been sent to state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who Labuda hopes might somehow intervene.

But no evidence of help has yet come to pass.

“The odors have been verified so many times. Nobody wants to enforce what’s in writing,” he said. “Nobody wants to worry about death, because how does it make you feel when a loved one dies? That’s why,” he said.

DEC officials have confirmed Labuda’s concerns have merit, but lack the authority to do much more about it, he said.

“As long as he’s running (the furnace) at 1,800 degrees there’s not a lot the DEC can do,” Labuda said.

That’s largely because the town opted to permit the facility in 1990 using spot zoning amendments in the first place, in an area otherwise occupied by homes.

That’s when Labuda and his family say things changed forever.

The smell and sound of the home’s incinerator have periodically plagued family events, a quiet moment after work or a restful sleep, he said.

“They are incinerators. They should be in industrial areas,” he said. “When you buy a house you look at the zoning around you. C-1 means no incinerators.”

In 2009 the DEC asked Amigone to raise the stack to at least 15 feet, which it did. Labuda said the stack is now around 17 feet high, but downdrafts mean the perceived problem hasn’t improved much.

“The odors are still there but the town has it in writing that it has to be free from odors,” he said citing rules accompanying exceptions to town zoning laws used by past city officials to OK the crematory in the early 1990s.

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