STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Activists and politicians fought for years so that Staten Island would no longer be the city’s dumping ground, and Monday marked another milestone on the way to the wide open space the former “dump” will become.
Representatives from multiple city agencies, and a delegation of local science teachers gathered at the site of the former Fresh Kills landfill to commemorate the 20th anniversary of its closure Monday morning.
Deputy Borough President Ed Burke began his service at Borough Hall in 1990 under former Borough President Guy Molinari, who led the fight to close the landfill that had become the largest in the world and the only one accepting the city’s residential refuse from 1991 until its closure in 2001.
During his time in government, Burke has seen firsthand the dramatic transformation of the site from public nuisance to the makings of what he…
