Posted below is an article in the Shawangunk Journal, followed by a comment posted on that website. Three expletives have been removed from the comment prior to publishing on YWN.

When Is A Patio Just A Patio?

Construction Activity At Camp Kosho Raises Concerns

By Jane Anderson

WAWARSING – A concrete foundation — er, a patio, rather — was the basis of a brouhaha that erupted at last Thursday’s town board meeting when Geiger Road resident Connie Wright asked about new construction activity on the site of a proposed shul at Camp Kasho at 99 Geiger Road.

A town planning board meeting on May 21 got heated over plans by DSG Holdings to build a 40-foot-by-88-foot shul there, to the point where one Camp Kasho official threatened that the town would “suffer” should their proposal not be approved. And when DSG Holdings asked for a decision within ten days, board members said they would not discuss the issue again until their next meeting June 18.

At the town board meeting Thursday, however, Wright, a neighbor of Camp Kasho, said that construction activity had begun on the site. Another neighbor, Nicole Bell, held up a stack of photos she took showing a large concrete slab. It appeared that metal forms for concrete pillars lined the perimeter of the slab, with a large crane poised above it. Other photos show workers chest-deep in the ground, working underneath the level of the slab.

Carlsen explained that a building permit was issued to DSG Holdings, but only for a patio.

Bell wasn’t buying it.

“They’re pouring the foundation for their shul,” she told the board. “You guys told them they could do it because they’d sue you if you didn’t. They couldn’t wait three weeks for the next planning board meeting? Now they get a three-week head start on their synagogue.”

She said this is just one example of the power that Orthodox Jewish-owned summer camps have over the town.

“There are camps around here that have a hundred outstanding building permits,” accused Bell, who is the daughter of highway superintendent Tony Paes and of Barbara Paes, who is the secretary to the planning board and to the building department. “If you’re letting all these Jewish people do it, I might as well become Jewish so I can do it. They should be shot down and stop work until they have the appropriate permits. If I have to be accountable to the town, they should be, too.”

Carlsen said he would look into the issue.

The following day, town planning board members visited the site and agreed that what they saw appeared to be foundation footings and concrete pillars. But building inspector Bryant Arms said that was not the case.

“An agent of DSG Holdings asked if a permit would be required to install a patio at 99 Geiger Road on the location where the proposed shul would be located,” Arms told this newspaper. “A patio, like sidewalks or similar landscaping, usually did not require a building permit. But the applicant explained that it was their intention to construct the patio according to the specifications for the foundation to the shul. The idea was to have a foundation ready for the shul when that becomes approved.

“I explained that an unpermitted patio cannot be used as a foundation because I could not be sure that it met proper specifications,” Arms continued. “So of course I was invited to inspect the various stages of the patio’s construction to verify that it would be built to certain specifications. I would not agree to do that unless a permit for the patio was obtained. That way my inspections would be official. So on May 31st I approved an application for a permit to construct the patio.”

Arms said the “patio” is above footings and underground foundation walls. What appeared to be columns are in fact transportation racks for eight-foot-long modular concrete form panels, he added.

“Despite appearances from the road, the patio was being formed as expected using standard construction methods; therefore, I did not issue a stop work order for the patio as a result of those mistaken reports,” Arms concluded. “The worst case scenario would be that the applicant would end up with a very expensive patio.”

THE FOLLOWING IS A COMMENT BELOW THE ARTICLE:

Friday, June 14 – 1:58PM

Lies, Lies, Lies! – Wake up People

Hats off to Connie Wright and Nicole Bell for their efforts in watching and reporting the illegal activity at the camp on Geiger Rd. We would like to believe the Orthodox Jews are made to adhere to the same rules as everyone else but we all know full well this is not the case. They do as they please with little, if any, accountability. But if a local non-Orthodox were to try something like they get away with the authorities would be on them faster than flies on (expletive removed). And Im not talking just our local government. I’m referring all the way up the ladder to the state level.

If the camp on Geiger Rd isn’t already off the tax rolls under the guise of being a “religious organization” it definitely will be after a shul is built on the property. As they get out of paying taxes on the land they buy here the lost revenue has to be made up some where. All the local residents who work for what they have can expect to pay higher taxes to pick up the slack.

I can relate a firsthand example of the (expletive removed)-kissing attitude our local government has towards the Orthodox people. Two summers ago I needed to go to Monticello for a few things. As other local residents already know the best time to do this, if possible, is between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday as this is when the Orthodox are out of sight in observance of their holy day. As I drove through South Fallsburg the local law enforcement had a check point set up on Rt 42. This was well after dark. Whether they were checking tags or looking for drunk drivers I do not know. They did have a few vehicles pulled over to the side of the road. I figured they were looking at tags and would wave me on so I didnt put my window down as I approached. The officer stopped me and asked for me to put my window down and preceded to tell me that my window tint was “kind of dark”. As if I’m some kind of criminal conducting overt activity in my car that I’m trying to hide by the dark tinted windows. This was the way the windows were when I bought the car but I didnt even bother to explain this fact. My reply to the officer was “yeah so” which I repeated quite a few times as reply to his concern over them. I wasnt trying to be a smart ass. I just didnt see what the problem was. After continuing on my way I had the thought that I would have liked to have asked the officer why they made sure to set up their check point well after sundown on a Friday during the summer in the town of Fallsburg. Why not do it on a Saturday night? In my mind there would be much more potential to catch drunk drivers on a Saturday night than a Friday. And just think of all the expired tags they would have encountered on a Saturday night after the Orthodox were out on the roads. It doesnt take much thought to figure why they didn’t set up their road check on a Saturday night. They were told not to do so because it would be considered harassment by the poor, down trodden, misunderstood Orthodox people and in the end would cause more trouble for the local police.

If I had my way, and I know that many, many more full-time residents would concur, every (expletive removed) Orthodox/Hasidic Jew would be told to get out and stay out of the townships of Wawarsing and Fallsburg. Hell, all of Ulster and Sullivan counties for that matter. Their presence here is not welcome, appreciated or of any benefit. Did we not get along fine here before the influx of them?

Having to be exposed to their disgusting attitude and entitled behavior used to be only a summer condition. This soon will no longer be the case. They have been building year-round housing for sometime now in our neighboring town of Fallsburg. The same will happen in the town of Wawarsing. We will very easily have another huge community here like Kiryas Joel in Monroe. This is their grand plan. Do we want that here people? Hell no. Just ask residents of the Monroe area about the strife they cause there.

Just this week Barry Lewis, in his column, in the Times Herald-Record mentioned that as another summer begins he has already begun to hear negative comments concerning the Orthodox. I wonder why? He had the (expletive removed) to admonish the local citizens of Sullivan county to be tolerant of the Orthodox for the ten weeks they’re here and learn to get along as they bring so much revenue to Sullivan county. Money is always the most important thing isn’t it?

Please. They purchase some merchandise they can’t buy in their own stores but most everything is purchased from their own which is supplied from the city. They have even taken to bringing lumber/building supplies here from the city rather than buying from local yards. Hear that Fallsburg Lumber, Home Depot?

They come up here and clog our roads with both their vehicles and themselves with their attitude of privilege. How about them having consideration for the local residents.

As far as they are concerned everything exists for their use and they are out to get everything they can for nothing. This applies to land, goods, services and having babies one after the other on the government’s (our) dime. They are leeches that live off everyone else who work everyday and PAY TAXES to try to have something. They sponge off the system in every way possible.

They get married in a religious ceremony so in their own eyes they’re married which is all they care about. They dont bother to get a marriage license so in the eyes of NYS the female (baby maker) is a single parent and entitled to all that welfare will provide. Hell, why not, as they say, “have as may as God will give me”. The taxpayers will pay for it. They’re so (expletive removed) inbreed that they produce an inordinate number of retarded off spring. And then the cost of services for these “special needs children” are taken up by social services. Yet another drain they place on the system because they expect everyone else to pay their way.

They have the gall to refer to themselves as poor. It’s very easy to make yourself look poor with bogus paper work. Why would someone who’s so poor, by their own account, be so selfish and irresponsible to have so many children they can’t obviously afford to support? Because social services picks up the tab.

They dont recognize laws or people outside their own. Taxes are something just to get out of paying as much as possible. Take notice of the vehicles they ride around in. Cheap? No sir. Lexus, Infinity, Cadillac SUV’s. But don’t ever forget the fact that they’re poor.

They are nothing but trouble where ever they are. Look at the filthy mess they leave behind for someone else to clean up every year after they leave.

I don’t care what religion or way of life someone wants to follow but pay your own damn way.

The article that appeared in the February 28th issue of the Shawangunk Journal titled Back to the Bungalows? brought to light the proposed sixty-four home Orthodox development in Greenfield Park and the concerns the local residents there had for it’s construction. One of which was the propsed building of a synagogue on the property. Sound familiar?

The article elicited just one comment on the paper’s website. Compare that to all the comments posted surrounding the controversy a couple years ago over whether or not a Wal-Mart would be constructed in Napanoch.

In my opinion this is very sad indeed as the burdensome consequences of letting the Orthodox take more and more here is much more worse and far reaching than a Wal-Mart having been built.

Where will it end? It will end when the local property owners can no longer afford to live here and pay their taxes and will just walk away. Their places will be taken by either the mortgage holder or the county for taxes. Consequently there will be such a loss of revenue the town government will not longer be able to operate. Why would our Wawarsing officials allow this to happen? They live here too.

(YWN Catskills Newsroom)