Thursday, July 12, 2018
Residents Complain About Hasidic Camp
Numerous neighbors of the Rav Tov Hasidic Camp on Cherrytown Road in Kerhonkson came out to the July 5 Rochester Town Board meeting to voice their concerns regarding the camp. In the public comment section, Alan Fidler, a neighbor of the Rav Tov camp said, "I want kids to have a great summer. I want them to run, to sing, to do whatever kids do in summer. But I do not understand why they need a loudspeaker to do that. Why do we have to hear the supervisors telling them when supper is ready, where to go? Are there no noise ordinances?"
"No, there are no noise ordinances," responded Supervisor Mike Baden.
"Why not?" asked Fidler. "I and the other people here are suffering from these people on the loudspeakers around the clock. And it's not necessary, not when you have walkie-talkies. Why are there no noise ordinances? There are multitudes of kids screaming at two in the morning."
"Noise ordinances are too hard to enforce," responded Baden. "I live on Rogue Harbor Road and appreciate your concerns. I hear the camp too. As a first step I will approach the rabbi."
"What about their septic system?" asked another member of the public. "Their system is not adequate. After midnight if you stand on my lawn the smell will make you sick." Baden said he'd look into it with the Board of Health.
"What about the traffic?" asked yet another. "Twenty-four buses parked all the way down to the trailer park for up to an hour starting at 4:30 a.m. We call the police and they turn up, maybe, in an hour. And seven box trucks lined up outside the gates."
"I go out every day with gloves and a bucket and pick up garbage," said a woman. "It's not there in the rest of the year. I'm a garbage collector from June until August. I deliver it to their driveway."
"It's getting real nasty up there," said another member of the public. "It's bound to get worse if nothing is done. The sewer smell has increased since they put on the solar panels. It's disgusting."
"And they march on the road," said a woman. "I don't know, maybe 1,000 girls three abreast screaming and marching. Is that allowed, isn't that an unapproved parade?"
"I hear what you're saying," replied Baden. "We will attend to it."
"When will we hear what you've done?" responded a member of the public.
"It's not a deadline matter," said Baden. A noise ordinance is going to take several months, no timeline. But we'll enforce the no-parking zone."
Highways superintendent Antonio Spano suggested more no-parking signs or adding in guard rails. A member of the public responded, "Then they'll just park down the middle of the road."
Board member Bea Haugen-Depuy said that something had to be done and that the board was putting laws in the books that have no teeth, that can't be enforced. "Who's going to pay for it all?" said Haugen-Depuy. "Will we increase our police budget? But something has to be done. I want action before August."
The board additionally heard that Tow Path Road in the vicinity of Deep Pond had become impassable because of over-parking during recent hot days.
The board resolved to hold public hearing into the parking issues at the August 2 town meeting.
Speed Studies
The supervisor was authorized to request a NYS DOT speed study of Cherrytown Road to establish a maximum speed limit of 25 mph beginning at the intersection with Samsonville Road for a distance of 0.4 miles in the vicinity of the Pine Ridge Dude Ranch. The Ranch has requested the speed limit in an effort to improve road safety near their facility.
The supervisor was further authorized to request a NYS DOT speed study and maximum speed reduction to establish a maximum speed limit of 45 mph for a distance of 0.9 miles on Lucas Turnpike from the intersection with Rte 209 to the intersection with Rondout Lane. This speed limit would protect the safety of residences and the Acorn School. A cyclist was fatally injured in this area in 2014 in a collision with a motor vehicle.
It was resolved that Elaine LaFlamme be appointed to serve as chairperson of the Historic Preservation Commission until the end of 2018.
The July 5 meeting opened with a resolution to continue the public hearing into the adjustment of the zoning map, Local Law #4, immediately prior to the August 2, town board meeting at 7 p.m.
Later in the meeting a resolution was passed that another public hearing would also be held at the August 2 meeting. That public hearing relates to proposed law, #5-2018 that would make it illegal to park on either side of the road at 338 Cherrytown Road (the Rav Tov camp), and Tow Path Road from numbers 301 to 448 (Deep Hole), and Project 32 Road.
The first two relate to dangerous and crowded parking blocking Tow Path Road and Cherrytown Road this summer.
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