The following article appears in today’s Times Herald Record: County Route 44 remains shut after nearly two weeks as Orange County officials await plans from Kiryas Joel to replace an unauthorized wooden walkway that the village erected beside the road.

The county closed part of the Monroe-Woodbury thoroughfare on Oct. 15 and refuses to reopen it until Kiryas Joel secures or blocks a loosened guardrail and applies for a permit for a permanent sidewalk.

No application had been submitted as of mid-afternoon Monday. Village officials had told the county they expected to submit their proposal on Monday or Tuesday, according to County Executive Ed Diana’s spokesman, Rich Mayfield.

“We have to be satisfied that it’s safe and secure before the road is reopened,” Mayfield said.

Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedalye Szegedin and Mayor Abraham Wieder didn’t return calls for comment. Moses Witriol, the village’s public safety director, was out of town and couldn’t be reached for an update, according to a dispatcher for the public safety department.

The wooden boardwalk was built this month along a stretch of Route 44 that crosses through part of Kiryas Joel where hundreds of condominiums have been built within the last several years.

Village officials have been pressing to build sidewalks there for pedestrian safety and had tried unsuccessfully to take possession of that strip of Route 44. Instead, county legislators offered them an easement for the work.

Then, on Oct. 15, county workers discovered the boardwalk had been built without permission and concluded that 500 feet of guardrail had been loosened in the process.

The county declared the conditions unsafe for drivers and walkway pedestrians alike.

Motorists must now use a detour through the village.

Diana has vowed to fine Kiryas Joel $1,000 a day until the road reopens and charge roughly $5,000 for the time county employees have spent so far on the matter. He also wanted the walkway removed, although he later said it could remain temporarily if the village blocks it with concrete barriers.