Supervisor

Town of Forestburgh

To the editor:

Even though it is the Town [of Forestburgh] policy to not comment on litigation, I feel I must comment on the article written by Derek Kirk and published in the March 18 edition of the Sullivan County Democrat.

I will start out by saying the article is not only misleading, but full of flat out false statements.

The Town has been embroiled in lawsuits with the developer of the resort at lost lake for over 3.5 years now. To date there has been about 7 or 8 lawsuits and appeals filed in that time including 1 filed by the town and 2 federal suits. All but a tax cert case have been favorable to the town.

The only 2 pending are 1 federal suit claiming discrimination, and a state suit filed by the Town to “compel the developer to comply with town code, local law, ordinance rule or regulation applicable to the resort project.”

The article on the front page of the Democrat wrongly states that the court has ruled the federal discrimination case “ripe for adjudication” and has denied “its appeal to dismiss”. This is a lie. In fact, the town did file a motion to dismiss, and it has not been ruled on at this time, and likely won’t be anytime soon as arguments are still pending.

The article further wrongly states that “the court” in their statement of interest stated many things……, when in fact it was the US Attorneys that filed a statement of interest, NOT A COURT.

It is fact that in every case of alleged discrimination in a federal court when a motion to dismiss is filed the US ATTORNEYS of the district the claim is filed in automatically file a statement of interest. It is protocol, and not out of the ordinary.

I can assure you that the Town is confident in its well-established position, and strongly feel that we will prevail in the remaining suits.

The Sullivan County Democrat has caused much harm and confusion with their biased, misleading, and flat out false “reporting”. The Democrat and Derek Kirk must retract its false statements, and obviously externally influenced article and apologize to the Town.