TOWN OF MAMAKATING, NY — The issue of the 396-unit development in the Village of Bloomingburg, with a population of about 400, has upended the political landscape in recent elections. Two past mayors of the village supported developer Shalom Lamm’s project and personally benefitted from Lamm’s actions, according to court documents, while the new mayor was elected with an anti-development stance.

Likewise the former supervisor of the Town of Mamakating, builder Duane Roe, supported Lamm’s development and benefited from Lamm’s actions according to court documents, and the voters turned him out of office in favor of Bill Hermann, who again, took a public stand against Lamm and his development.

The project is still tied up in legal action, and many observers believe that in at least one election there was significant voter fraud committed by members of the Hasidic community who voted but did not live in or own homes in Bloomingburg. Judge Stephan Schick called that vote an attempt to “stuff the ballot box.”

In the vote about whether to dissolve the village, the Sullivan County Board of Elections (BOE) determined that a number of voters did not have the right to vote, yet in a stipulation reached with Lamm’s lawyers, agreed to allow those ineligible votes to be counted anyway, and that changed the outcome of the election.

The development—called Villages at Chestnut Ridge—and Lamm are still the subject of investigation and litigation, and still fresh in the minds of voters in the area.

The election for the Sullivan County legislator for District Four, which includes the Village of Bloomingburg, is between Democrat Jonathan Rouis, who is also running on the Conservative and Independence lines, and Republican Catherine Owens, who is also running on the Rural Heritage line, and who is married to and the confidential secretary for Mamakating Supervisor Bill Hermann.

Rouis and Owens addressed the Bloomingburg development issue at a debate on radio station Thunder 102 on October 15.

Rouis praised the efforts put forward on the matter by the BOE and the county’s legal department. Regarding possible prosecution in the matter, Rouis said, “I know in my discussions with the district attorney, it was a very complicated investigation that he felt was much better handled by the FBI. They have been there; it’s my understanding they are continuing their work there, and quite frankly that’s where it should be. They have the expertise, they have the talent, they have the budget and they have the resources to handle those things....

“The other issue is, we have the potential for several hundred new families to move into our community, and I think it’s vital for our government officials to be there to help reconcile and have a community that’s brought together as best as they can be... adding fuel to the fire as a politician or as a government official really serves no purpose. It’s really our job, I think, to bring people together.”

Owens said, “This was from the beginning a zoning issue. The community was told it was going to be 125 senior, second homes, with no impact on the school district. They were also told there would be a swimming pool and a restaurant. To more than triple the size in a village as small as Bloomingburg brings insurmountable problems. There are already problems with traffic, with children running around under the one light in the town, problems of health and safety… If indeed a huge community comes in they’re going to need jobs, they’re going to need job training so they can get good jobs. And these are all huge problems that were not presented in the original zoning [applications.]”