PRESTON – A powerful stench continues to be detected on clear, crisp days downwind from the Pharsalia Landfill, according to the Preston’s supervisor, Peter C. Flanagan, who said he’s smelled it himself.

Now, another supervisor has concurred. City of Norwich Supervisor James McNeil told members of the Public Works Committee that he was driving in through Preston on a cold evening last week and smelled it. “Whew! It was deadly,” he said.

His constituents have been complaining for years, Flanagan said, but have “given up” on the county’s waste managers to rectify the problem.

“They tell me, ‘We’ve given up on you. You’re not going to do anything,’” Flanagan said.

Chenango County DPW Director Randy Gibbon said his office hadn’t received many complaint calls about odors, but efforts to burn off any gas escaping from the Pharsalia Landfill continue. All of the vents are connected and flared regularly, he said. Workers have planned to temporarily cover the very tip top of Cell 1 with clay in the spring.