South Fallsburg

To the editor:

 After reading Mr. Rosenberg’s letter [see edition 8/23], I felt compelled to respond.  My family has lived on the same property in So. Fallsburg for over 110 years.  We have seen the good times and the bad times of this area.

  First, Mr. Rosenberg states that the summer residents pay significant property taxes and only use their homes 10 weeks a year.  He failed to state that thanks to Sheldon Silver, a majority of the new developments in the Town of Fallsburg pay “CONDO RATE” or in other words 50 percent of the taxes on their tax bill. However, they still receive 100 percent of the services offered, such as police, fire, the parks, etc.  The fact that the residents are only here 10 weeks a year, that’s their choice.  They aren’t living in a hotel where there is check-out time.  The home owners can stay as long as they want and a matter of fact many do use their homes on week-ends and holidays throughout the year.

  He then states, it is “us” vs “them” – that certainly has an undertone of anti-semitism, which, of course, is far from the truth.  That card has been played too many times and should be put back in the deck.

  The “us” are the residents that are realistic.  Yes we agree that the infrastructure needs to be upgraded to accommodate the influx of the new developments in the town.  There was a water shortage last summer as well as this summer. The Town needed to hire outside companies to truck water from other areas of the Town to South Fallsburg.  This issue also affected fire fighting within South Fallsburg. Since there wasn’t adequate water in the system, the fire department had to rely on tankers from other fire departments to provide water at a fire scene.

  However, you can’t put five pounds of potatoes in a one pound bag. The Town needs to allow what is being built now to come to completion and put a moratorium on any future projects, until the water and sewer system can be brought up to meet the influx of new residents.  You can’t fix a problem while you are adding to the problem.

  When it comes to these new projects, no one ever mentions electric or cell phone service.  There is only so much electric that NYSEG can generate in their grid, what’s going to be next rolling brown outs like there is in California?

  How about the parking and traffic?  Anyone who has traveled in the Town of Fallsburg over the summer certainly is aware of this problem.  Think about it, if there are five new projects that have 100 homes, each having two vehicles, that’s another 1000 cars.  Where are they going to park and how are they going to maneuver down the streets of the town?

  So yes a moratorium is necessary.  Let’s get caught up with what we have now, fix the issues at hand and then address future projects.

  Mr. Rosenberg signed his letter as a community activist, which community is it, the “us”, “them” or maybe he should be a community activist for all the residents of the Fallsburg community.