BETHEL RESOLVES PROPERTY ISSUE

By CHRIS CONROY

BETHEL - The Town of Bethel is getting ready to clean its streets. This won't be any normal cleanup, though. The streets the town is looking to clean don't actually exist.

At the October 26 Bethel Town Board meeting, the board once again raised the issue of "paper streets," parcels of land that were once set aside for future roads. These future roads were drawn into town and county maps. For various reasons, many of these potential streets never came into being, remaining in existence only on paper.

The parcels were put on the tax roles and quickly made their way to delinquent tax status, as there were no owners. Last year, Sullivan County began to auction off these paper streets.

"There were some problems," said Bethel Supervisor Allan Scott. "Some of the parcels were bought by individuals who were not interested in being good neighbors." At least one of those instances has led to legal action between Bethel residents and the owner of a former paper street.

Usually long and thin, paper street parcels can border multiple properties. None are suitable for building. However, the board pointed out, some could give adjoining property owners the extra bit they need to enlarge their sub-standard lots to buildable size. Other parcels would simply increase the property of one owner or another.

"The town took possession of these paper streets from the county," Scott said. The reason? So the town could deal with the issues in a more personable manner than the county's property auction. "We want to avoid problems like those that were previously caused."

Having already been contacted by a handful of property owners who adjoin paper street parcels, the town is getting ready to clean up the issue. Over the coming month, the board will look at the parcels within its boundaries and help facilitate sensible solutions for all adjoining property owners.

Conditions that the board is considering setting in place call for the purchaser to pay the transfer fees as well as a fair and reasonable price for the land. The board also stipulated that on purchase, the paper street parcel must be merged with an existing, adjoining parcel to prevent these same small strips of land from ending up back at the county auction in a few years.

Further discussion on the subject was tabled until the November 9 meeting, pending review of the conditions by town legal counsel.

It was also announced that the Town of Bethel Town Hall will be closed on Tuesday, November 7 for Election Day and on Friday, November 10 in observance of Veterans' Day. Veterans' Day services will be held on Saturday, November 11 at 11:00 a.m. at the Arthur L. Vassmer Memorial Park (Town Square). Following the ceremony the Bethel Girl Scouts will serve refreshments at the firehouse.

At the meeting, the Board also: resolved to support Sullivan County in its request to become a New York State Empire business zone; set the public hearing date for the preliminary budget for the November 9 meeting; adopted the deferred compensation program for town employees; and announced a donation given by Woodstone Toronto, LLC, to assist in defraying legal costs incurred during legal action involving the Toronto Reservoir.