Frustrations over access road continue

By CHARLIE BUTERBAUGH

WHITE LAKE, NY — Herman Wiener believes refusal of the Smallwood Civic Association’s request to adopt Town Road 62 indicates a larger problem of discrimination in the Town of Bethel.

The civic association continues to challenge the town board’s August 14 resolution to authorize steps leading to the road’s closure. Wiener and corresponding secretary Bob Barrett maintain that Mirant’s lease on the road, which leads to the Toronto Dam hydro-electric plant, provides a federal requirement to keep the road open.

Woodstone Development Corp. owns the property on both sides of the road and has advocated closure of the road, but the town board has tabled the turbulent issue. Deputy Supervisor Victoria Simpson said the decision to table action on the road is the basis for delaying the civic associations adopt-a-road application.

Councilman Robert Blais explained his basis for the refusal, saying current activity on the road, including construction of new electric and telephone lines and nearby heavy hunting, would create a dangerous situation if the civic association began to keep the road clean. Blais suggested that the road issue remain tabled until after hunting season.

Barrett and Bethel residents challenged the reasoning because hazards of hunting season have never prevented such a request, and the town would benefit by granting the adoption because town residents would clean the road at no expense to the board.

Wiener suggested that the board motion to approve the adoption, effective in March. Blais compromised and made the motion, but Lynden Lilley, the only other councilman present, sat in silent refusal, and the motion failed to carry.

Residents demanded that Lilley explain why he would not second the motion. He replied, “I choose not to.”

“One hundred percent of applications [adopt-a-road] are approved, so this decision is discriminatory,” Barrett said.

In other business, the town board adopted a resolution to authorize the sale of an 11.3-acre tract of land along the White Lake Turnpike to Sullivan County for $10,000. The county plans to build a fire training facility on the land for use by all Sullivan County fire companies.

Blais said the county will spend up to $2 million on the facility, which addresses post-September 11 standards for disaster training.

“The parcel of land was doing nothing,” Simpson said. “The fire training center will bring increased traffic into the center of Bethel and improve commerce.”