The Narrowsburg School is not in our backyards. Narrowsburg is in the school’s backyard. In a situation unique to Narrowsburg, the business that goes in the school building will have an undue influence on the nature of the hamlet. If a drug and alcohol rehab, then all of Narrowsburg will be a drug and alcohol rehab.

If a community center, than all of Narrowsburg will be a community center.

This is a simple truth and has nothing to do with emotion or picking sides or NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) or rehab laws or legality of school sale or anything else.

The numerous inconsistencies and misrepresentations that have come out of this questionable sale, however, are far from simple and never cease to amaze.

In an odd twist of the NIMBY syndrome, it appears that the whole of Narrowsburg is so inconveniently located in the backyard of the buyer’s potential new building (and site of their intended drug rehab business) that a current councilman has taken upon himself to sweeten the pot of their purchase and straighten all of Narrowsburg into submission. This same current councilman, an elected public servant, has decided to strongly warn the very Narrowsburg residents who elected him to office about litigation on behalf of said buyer. Aimed at Tusten, he warns, are the big guns of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) laws—those great white hopes of every rehab business seeking to crush community opposition to one of its proposed locations.

It would be good for our councilman, the Sullivan West Central School District board, the current buyer and, of course, all Narrowsburg residents, to understand that ADA or FHA laws protect disabled citizens against discrimination, but they do not grant them any superior or special rights that are not enjoyed by all other citizens or trump non-disabled citizens’ rights.

Additionally, the reach of the ADA and/or FHA law is particularly limited when a locality can demonstrate that its zoning ordinances are the product of comprehensive and reasonable decision-making, such as Narrowsburg can with its master plan, and rarely applicable without an environmental quality review, which includes an examination of a proposed facility’s impact on the character of its location.

The ADA and FHA laws are important laws that protect disabled persons. They are not real estate sales tools. Using them as such is a deplorable exploitation of the rights of Americans with disabilities and an affront to their struggles.

As rational citizens, we have to approach any manipulative developments forced onto our hamlet with reason and vigilance and a clear responsibility to Narrowsburg and the well-being of its current and future residents. We cannot allow a sale that is brokered by fear, irresponsibility and misinformation to go forward. Nothing good can ever come out of it—not for Narrowsburg, not for any of the river hamlets, not for the school district, not for the taxpayers.

[D. Alexander lives and works in Manhattan, NY and owns a second home in Narrowsburg, NY.]