Buildings and beavers

A busy night for Bethel

By FRITZ MAYER

BETHEL, NY— The aging camp across from Ballard Road on Route 17B is like many others in Sullivan County: it’s the home of multiple buildings in various states of disrepair that are an unwelcome eyesore. This particular camp may be even less welcome than others because it is a very visible blight on the road that carries thousands of visitors to Bethel Woods.

Bethel officials held a public hearing on November 6 to determine whether the town should seek to have the buildings demolished. The owner of the property, Ray DiRaimondo, has not responded to the certified letters the town has sent. No one else offered to speak at the hearing.

The town had previously received a report from engineer Glenn Smith that said that of the 11 buildings and one swimming pool on the property, only the main house was salvageable, and the others represented a threat to the health and safety of the residents of the town.

Councilman Ted Yeoman’s said, “Tear ’em down.”

Town supervisor Dan Sturm said the owner had been uncooperative in numerous attempts to rectify the situation, including one in 2006 that came with an offer of a 50 percent matching grant to help pay for the work.

The board voted unanimously to put the demolition work out for bid, which will then be billed to the owner.

Another matter the board dealt with also concerned an uncooperative property owner, at least from the board’s point of view. This property is on Ballard Avenue, not too far away from the camp. It seems that a beaver has built a dam on an inauspicious bit of a stream that runs through property owned by Edward McAndrew. During heavy rains, the dam causes significant flooding on Ballard Road, but the owner has not been willing to let town highway officials onto the property to remove the dam.

The board, therefore, took several steps involving interactions with state and county officials, which will allow them to enter the property to demolish the dam, despite the wishes of the owner. At the meeting, the board voted unanimously to move forward with the process, pending receipt of a permit from the NYS Department of Conservation.

On another matter, the board voted to update the town code, addressing multiple issues. The issue that sparked the most discussion involved the operation of all terrain vehicles (ATVs) and snowmobiles on town roads. The previous code allowed the operations of such vehicles on all town roads. But state statute says that those vehicles can be used on town roads only under very limited circumstances. For instance, ATVs can only be operated on a town road when leaving one off-road trail in order to reach another one. But even in that case, the road must have signs indicating that the limited ATV use is permitted.

There was general agreement among residents and board members that many people, both full-time residents and weekend visitors, do, in fact operate the vehicles on the road, and perhaps the town should leave that portion of the code as it was.

But town attorney Robert McEwan said the board had an obligation to follow the law, adding that taking no action might open the town to liability. The board passed the updates to the code by a five-to-four vote, with Sturm indicating he would rather have waited to allow time to further research the ATV and snowmobile issue.