Bethel meeting focuses on local laws

Dogs, litter and non-permitted driveways

By FRITZ MAYER

KAUNEONGA LAKE, NY — Town officials in Bethel are clearly interested in enforcing town laws.

At the July 24 meeting of the Bethel Town Board, supervisor Dan Sturm read an order from Judge Robert Sackett that essentially orders that the breeder known as White Lake Pups shut down operations, and henceforth, keep no more than four dogs on the property.

The town has had a long-running legal dispute with the breeder who, according to the town, was operating a kennel in a zone not approved for such a business on Foster Road off Route 55. The judge ordered that the kennel not only get rid of all but four dogs, but also agree to pop inspections by town personnel, and to pay the town more than $9,000 it had racked up in legal fees.

In a second demonstration of local law enforcement, Sturm said that after several residents complained about litter at the Hassidic grocery store at the corner of Route 55 and Route 17B, town officials paid a visit to the establishment and told the owners that town codes would be strictly enforced. He said the visit had already resulted in action with a cleanup of the parking lot.

On a third matter of local law, however, one resident said the town needed to enforce laws more strictly.

The issue concerned the property known as the old golf course in Smallwood. Robert Van Zandt, a developer, purchased the property in 2006 and planned to put 200 townhouses on it, but has, so far, been blocked from doing so by zoning laws.

On the Fourth of July weekend, the developer had a “wood-lot access” constructed between the road and the property, and he did so without a permit.

At the meeting, highway superintendent Linden Lilly said the town had taken unprecedented action in setting conditions for the permit, which the developer must now apply for and receive, even though the access is already in place. The town also doubled the price of the application from $50 to $100.

At the meeting, Jonathan Hyman, director of Preserve Smallwood Country Life, a local citizens group, said the town should also have imposed a $250 fine, which is an option under town law.

Lilly said that if the town did that, it would have to be ready to fine local citizens who might put in a driveway before getting a permit.

In a matter related not to local law but local history, the board agreed to pay up to $300 for a frame for a map of Sullivan County, which dates to 1856. According to town clerk Rita Sheehan, the map was likely displayed in one of the 15 school districts that existed in the county in a previous era.

Sheehan, who has been clerk for 11 years, said she knew it was rolled up in the corner of the office near the printer since she started the job, and decided this was the time to pull out the map and have it framed. She researched a glass frame, which would have cost up to $7,000 for the 54-by-56-inch map. That was a bit high, so she opted for Plexiglas.

While the map is being framed, Sheehan is also having framed a bicentennial flag from 1976. She said both objects will be on display in the town hall within the next couple of weeks.