BARRYVILLE, NY — A code enforcement issue with a Barryville area business will make its way to the New York State Supreme Court. 

The Highland Town Board held an emergency meeting on Wednesday, April 19 and authorized a lawsuit against the Oasis, a combination gas station, to-go store and cider-tasting room owned by community leaders John Pizzolato and Roswell Hamerick. 

The lawsuit stems from a fire inspection conducted by town code enforcement officer BJ Gettel in November. The inspection showed multiple violations and missing paperwork for the Oasis’ code compliance. 

From the town’s perspective, the lawsuit is a last resort to bring the property back in compliance with town regulations. The property’s owners say they have followed the process, and that their attempts to do so have been met with delay and missing information from town officials. 

The resolution

The town’s resolution authorizes Michael Davidoff, attorney for the Town of Highland, to enter into a civil action against the Barryville Oasis and its owner, the River Holding Company LLC, in the New York State Supreme Court. The town plans to ask the court to keep the property’s owners from violating local laws and local and state building codes, to keep the owners from using the Barryville Oasis and to direct the owners to get all the permits they need.

The owners left the town with no other recourse, Davidoff told the River Reporter. 

The town issued a stop-work order on February 22 against a portion of the premises, due to the violations. Normally, when a property has a stop-work order on it, the owners talk with the building department and get things sorted out, but that didn’t happen in this case, said Davidoff. 

According to Pizzolato, representatives from the town and from the Barryville Oasis will meet on Thursday, April 27 to discuss the issue.

A parallel process

When Gettel conducted the fire inspection at the Oasis, she wrote the property an “insurmountable amount” of violations, Pizzolato told the River Reporter. 

Gettel determined as well that the property needed a special-use permit.  The owners followed up with zoning board of appeals chairman Larry Fishman, who informed the town the property did not, according to Pizzolato.

No one from the town had mentioned the Barryville Oasis would need a special-use permit even after being asked, said Pizzolato. Town supervisor Jeff Haas and town councilperson Chris Tambini had bought the property’s auto-inspection license, and had seemed supportive, Pizzolato said; a letter of intent filed with the Highland Town Clerk in March 2022 went misfiled until December; code enforcement officer Jim Hanson had visited the property and issued a building permit for certain upgrades. 

Pizzolato and Hamrick went before the Highland Planning Board in January, asking for a site plan approval. The board didn’t grant them one: their submission lacked important information, said chairman Norm Sutherland, such as an engineered site plan showing septic details, parking details and property lines. 

The owners requested guidance from the planning board, and waited 62 days for that advice, said Pizzolato. The week of April 9, they filed with the zoning board of appeals (ZBA), asking that board to determine whether the Oasis needed a special-use permit. 

The town took action to sue the Oasis even while that process unfolded, leaving the owners confused. It’s unprecedented for the town to sue a small business, said Pizzolato. 

The Stickett Inn, another business owned by Pizzolato and Hamerick, received a violation for operating without a site-plan approval and special-use permit in 2020. When brought to the ZBA, the ZBA noted that the violation was valid but that there were mitigating factors, and it dismissed the violation. 

ZBA chair Larry Fishman said at the time that the business was a boon to the town, but that it was on the owners to understand what was needed by zoning. 

Damage

Two days after the town decided on its lawsuit, on Friday, April 21, the diesel pump at the Barryville Oasis sustained damage. 

Community speculation following the announcement suggested that the damage had been vandalism. A brief investigation from the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department showed that the pump had been sideswiped by a car transport truck, causing the damage. 

The town board thanked the sheriff’s department for a quick resolution in a press release, and said it did not condone targeted violence against any business. “The allegations of involvement of Board members or any community members in a hate crime are deeply troubling and taken very seriously.”

Pizzolato issued a statement specifying that the truck hit the pump multiple times, and highighted that the Barryville Oasis did not make any allegations toward the town.

Editors note: This article has been updated as of 5:30 p.m., April 26, with further information about the accident and about the Barryville Oasis' owners discussions with town officials.