UCRRA Appoints New Executive Director
January 31st 2024 Submitted by the UCRRA Board of Directors
The Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency has agreed to hire former Deputy Ulster County Executive Marc Rider as its new permanent executive director. The unanimous decision came at a special RRA meeting Monday, January 29. Rider will begin his new post March 4.
“Hiring Marc Rider as UCRRA’s new executive director feels like the most important decision the board of directors has made,” said RRA board chairman Regis Obijiski. “Mr. Rider is an Ulster County professional and will be an impressive leader at the agency because he has the intelligence, savvy, and humility to lead us into a refreshing future.”
Rider, who lives in Rifton, was Ulster County’s deputy executive under then county executive Pat Ryan, from June 2018 to June 2022. He helped oversee daily county operations and assisted in implementing the county’s response to the Covid epidemic. He has also served as the county Director of purchasing from 2014 to 2018 and worked as a county assistant attorney in 2013.
“I would like to thank the Agency Board of Directors for this opportunity. I am excited to get started in this work and look forward into making the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency a model of waste management in New York State and beyond. There are challenges ahead when it comes to waste management as an industry and I look forward to finding innovative approaches to meet those challenges,” Rider said. “My priorities will be to help the Board run the agency efficiently with an eye on fiscal responsibility, maximize diversion out of the waste stream, and reduce the agency’s carbon footprint to the greatest extent possible.”
An attorney, with an environmental law certificate, Rider’s currently serves as Counsel for the Access: Supports for Living Inc. in Middletown. He is also currently a trustee on the Kingston City School board.
Rider will replace interim executive director Anna Roppolo, who previously spent nearly two decades leading the Rockland County Solid Waste Management Authority. She was brought on last fall and guided the search process for new leadership. The previous full-time executive director Greg Ollivier was relieved of his duties by the board last summer, while still in his probationary period.
The UCRRA is a public benefit corporation whose five member board is appointed by the county legislature, but which otherwise operates independently. RRA operations are budgeted at about $20 million in 2024, and will dispose of approximately 148,000 tons of municipal solid waste by trucking it to a landfill at Seneca Meadows, roughly 250 miles distant.
Disposal operations are currently running smoothly, and the agency also helps towns and residents recycle, collect used electronics and household hazardous waste and has a growing composting program, however, changes will be coming. The future of solid waste disposal likely involves programs to maximize diversion of materials and enhanced facilities for recycling, composting and other materials management strategies. Additionally, the contract between UCRRA and Ulster County expires next year, and a new arrangement will need to negotiated over the next 12 months
