Community Activist 

To the editor:

The solution isn’t to stop building. James Legari’s stance is shameful, especially for someone on the grievance board. He knows that summer residents pay significant property taxes but only use their homes about 10 weeks a year, even though we have the right to use them legally all year round.

The local residents’ resentment, blaming us for the problems, is misplaced. The real issue lies with our elected officials. We need to stop the “us vs. them” mentality and work together. As tax-paying residents, we are simply asking for basic functioning and maintenance of the sewer and water systems—this is the minimum obligation of any municipality.

It’s disgraceful to compare the villages and towns of Sullivan County to others without acknowledging that we have more land and fewer people. Those other areas have well-functioning infrastructure because their officials planned, prepared, and executed updates.

New construction contractors have already paid, and continue to pay, extra money for upgrading the water and sewer systems.  Does anyone know where that money is? Who pocketed it or is it saved for infrastructure upgrades who has accountability on those funds.

 A moratorium is not the answer. The correct answer is positive action. The current board needs to address the failures and delays of previous administrations and start upgrading the system now.