Disgruntled storeowner signs agreement

By TOM KANE

CALLICOON — The hamlet of Callicoon’s sidewalk project can now move ahead, with all storeowners on board.

Two months ago, Albert Kaufmann, owner of the Callicoon Depot, refused to sign an agreement granting the town a temporary easement in order to reconstruct new sidewalks along Lower Main Street. He was the only storeowner who refused to sign.

“I object to the fact that the United Nations (UN) is mentioned in the easement that I’m expected to sign,” Kaufmann said. He objected to the United Nations as an organization that harbors terrorist countries.

For some strange reason that town officials could not explain, the document mentions the UN and the United States of America as possible recipients of such easements.

“It [the reference to the UN] has nothing to do with us,” said town supervisor Bill Moran.

Still, Kaufmann objected on principle.

He finally signed the agreement last week after the town’s attorney, Ken Klein, struck out the UN name. Moran announced Kaufmann’s willingness at the town board meeting on April 18.

Moran said he hopes construction will begin by early June.

“If contractors can’t begin until July, I’m afraid we’ll have to postpone it till September,” he said. “We can’t disturb the hamlet at the height of the season.”

In other town business, a public hearing on the construction of a cell tower was held by the town’s planning board at 7:00 p.m., on Wednesday, April 25, in the Hortonville Fire House. The tower company, SBA, is seeking a special use variance to place the tower in a CAL B-1 zone, a business zone, which does not name towers as a listed use.