Village resident Ira Margolis stated his opposition to the annexation once again at this town-village meeting.
Margolis said that his residential complex, of Colonial Drive and Henry W. Dubois was “once again inundated with raw sewage.”
“It wasn’t just this particular storm, as it was actually worse in May,” he said. “If the village sewer system can’t handle what we have now, how can you move forward on an annexation that will further burden the system and the residents of the village?”
Margolis talked about the taxes he and his neighbors paid, spoke again about how the “village Planning Board does not collect recreation fees, or does for some, but not for their ‘favorites.’”
Mayor West explained that any development in the village had to be signed off on by the Department of Environmental Conservation. “We are still under a consent order from the DEC,” he said, referring to a consent order from the state agency. That was put in place when clean water advocacy group Riverkeeper documented that heavy rains caused raw sewage to ooze up from or blow throw manholes. It’s not only a public health threat for people who live there, but that water also flows into the Wallkill River. Eventually that water finds its way to the Hudson River, a national landmark which has many environmental protections.
“That’s part of the Planning Board review process. And the DEC has to be brought in, and they have to sign off on any plans or provide mitigation work that the developer must do in order to stay within the limits of the consent order.”
Woodland Ponds had to make costly improvements to the village sewer lines before they could hook into the system and get the DEC to sign off.
