Gershow Recycling buys family-run junkyard in Riverhead
Gershow Recycling will be coming to Riverhead soon, as the Medford-based recycling company is buying Fred J. Gallo Used Auto Parts on Hubbard Avenue and plans to continue that same use.
Tom Gallo Jr., one owner of the Gallo business, confirmed that the 3.5-acre property is being sold to Gershow, one of the largest recycling companies on Long Island, with eight locations.
“We’ve been here since 1960,” Mr. Gallo said Friday. “My father and I bought it from my grandfather in 1990 and my father is going to retire and I’m going to move on to other ventures.”
He said no timetable has yet been set for the turnover.
Gershow has filed an application with the state Department of Environmental Conservation to renovate the existing “End of Life Vehicle Recycling Facility,” commonly called a junkyard. The current use will be continued, the DEC application states.
The application calls for bringing in uncontaminated clean fill to regrade the site and enhance drainage, building a retaining wall and paving a portion of the site to build a series of catch basins. These measures will manage surface water runoff and direct stormwater runoff to a newly constructed stormwater overflow meadow at the property’s southeast corner, according to the DEC application.
The retaining wall will keep material from entering the wetlands, said DEC spokesman Bill Fonda.
“Overall this plan likely produces more wetlands and controls stormwater better than the previous/existing dirt surface that has no stormwater collection system,” Mr. Fonda said.
Because of the site’s proximity to Sawmill Creek, a freshwater wetlands permit is needed for the work. The project was not required by the DEC to do an environmental impact study. A written comment period on the proposal ended last Thursday.
Representatives from Gershow Recycling did not return a call seeking comment.
