The Times Herald Record reports:
The Town of Bethel remains in a showdown with a Hasidic bungalow colony over the use of a newly built shul and community center. The town this week ordered the colony to vacate the building and stop work for safety reasons, but on Friday, a steady stream of people entered and exited in defiance with the town supervisor looking on.
“The stop work order and order to vacate is posted in the window, and we expect it to be complied with,” Supervisor Dan Sturm told two Hasidic men while others strolled in an out of the unfinished building off Route 17B holding prayer books. “It will be complied with.”
Residents of the colony on Schultz Road last week started using the large center without a certificate of occupancy, Sturm said.
The colony is owned by United Talmudical Academy Torah Neyirah, which has a Brooklyn mailing address, according to town records. Colony board member Isaac Berger likened the treatment by the town to “Iran with one faction persecuted.”
Berger said town building officials promised to give the colony a temporary certificate when some minor conditions were met. He said the building was regularly inspected while under construction over the past two months.
“The town reneged on their promise,” he said.
The brick building, located about 1,000 feet off Route 17B, is in plain view. Bethel residents have lodged numerous complaints that colony members were using the building. UTA has a permit to build the 6,900-square-foot center, but it had not been finished or given a final inspection, town officials say.
Engineer Michael Weeks, of McGoey, Hauser and Edsall, visited the property Tuesday evening and deemed it unsafe. Weeks wrote in a letter that he noticed several people coming and going and numerous vehicles parked in front.
The unfinished parking area had steep side slopes. The lot hasn’t been graded.
“At present, this site poses a clear danger to its users and other members of the public,” he wrote.
Sturm said the town will issue violations as long as the colony continues to violate the order not to use the building. The town also plans a detailed site plan and building review to determine if the colony has complied with the building permit.
“The fact they are using the building is obviously a violation of the town code,” Sturm said while standing and watching people come and go. “Obviously, they have a difference of opinion.”
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6 Responses
rules don’t apply to some people. What a chilul hashem even if the town is wrong. Courts and lawyers are there for a reason. take it to court instead of making a chilul hashem.
Who cares what the local government wants. WE HAVE A HIGHER authority (whom we also don’t correctly follow)The general public is seeing how religious people defy local laws and this is causing great chillul Hashem and anti-semitsm. DINA D’MALCHUSSA DINA!If it is indeed unsafe,then it is a sakono to use the building,an issur d’oraisso.
#1 & 2 both absolutely correct, huge Chilul Hashem, this just hurts the other Frum people who come up to the White Lake area and those that are here all year round.
The headline should read “Defies”, not “Defy’s”.
V’nishmartem M’ode Es Nafshosehem.
Kol Yisroel Areivim Ze Bazah.
Bethel deserves a big yasher koach from all yiden.
“Defy’s” Town Order==should read “defies”
How can one even daven in an unsafe building?
If we don’t respect human authority,how can we say we respect THE AUTHORITY? (HKB”H)