Timing proved to be everything for the Town of Cobleskill’s logging of the old Greenbush Road landfill.
The town’s decision to award a contract for eight acres of timber to Clapper Logging of Cobleskill came under fire from fellow loggers in January; they argued considerably more could have been made by bidding the job out.
Estimates then were that the site could yield as much as $11,000 to $12,000 even in a low market.
But it turned out that Ken Hotopp, a councilman and a professional logging consultant, who advised selling the timber based on mill slips, was right:
The job earned the town nearly twice that: $21,749.84.
“It’s considerably more than expected,” Mr. Hotopp said. “I don’t think any of the loggers would have bid that much.”
Mr. Hotopp said Bruce Clapper was able to use the town timber to fill two special orders, one for high-grade sugar maples, the other for ash that had been marked for firewood.
“The timing was just right,” Mr. Hotopp said. “With timber, that’s often the way it works.”
Mr. Hotopp said the site has been cleaned and cleared and the road looks good; he’ll be keeping an eye of things there as the snow melts to make sure no other work housekeeping details need to be addressed.
“That’s the kind of job he [Mr. Clapper] does,” Mr. Hotopp added. “That’s one of the reasons we awarded him the contract.”
In 15-20 years, Mr. Hotopp said, the site will be ready to be logged again.
The last time it was logged, he said was about 1984.