REGARDING THE PROPOSED VILLAGE OF ATERES

A public hearing was held on August 3 in the Town of Thompson at the Viznitz Synagogue to review a petition that proposes to establish a new village spanning the towns of Thompson and Fallsburg. Supervisors from both towns chaired the public hearing.

The proposed village, Ateres, would be 929 acres in size and have a population of just over 830. Local residents came to voice their opinions about the proposal, but Town of Thompson Supervisor Bill Rieber immediately declared the purpose of this public hearing was limited. Only objections that challenged the sufficiency of the petition that had been submitted to the towns were allowed.

Residents of both Thompson and Fallsburg spoke, focusing on the irregularities of the signed petition and the submitted incomprehensible map.

Supervisors Rieber and Rappaport opted not to close the public hearing and will convene a second session on August 22nd. Once public comment is closed, they will have 10 days to determine if the petition is valid. If the petition is deemed valid, a referendum vote will be scheduled to determine the fate of Ateres.

THERE ARE PETITION IRREGULARITIES:

Both the Town of Thompson and Fallsburg received the Ateres petition on June 14, 2023.

We are concerned that residents were not well informed about the meeting regarding the petition for the proposed village.

All the petitioners are from only six streets in this area comprising of perhaps 5% of the total acreage.

Not one non-religious person signed this petition.

It is not helpful that the public hearing was held in the Viznitz Synagogue, not in a neutral Town Hall assembly place.

It also became clear that, after careful review of the petition and cross referencing with local voting rolls, most of the signatories are not registered voters.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Facing the August 22nd meeting, residents of both Fallsburg and Thompson should make their concerns known to the Town Supervisors.

The establishment of a new village flies in the face of the trend to consolidate towns and resources in New York State.

The new village would be able to create its own zoning by-laws that will allow for the hyper-development of residences, severely increasing density and drawing on town services like water and sewer that are already inadequate.

You can call their offices or write to them using some of the suggested language below. We are also circulating a petition protesting the establishment of Ateres which we will be sending out by email and which will be available at public events in the days ahead.

SAMPLE LETTER TO SEND

My name is _____________ I am a resident of the Town of (Thompson or Fallsburg). I have lived here for ____ years. I do not believe the Petition for the proposed Village of Ateres is legally sufficient for approval by the joint decision of the Supervisors of Thompson & Fallsburg. I wish to challenge the Petition as being legally deficient in multiple ways.

It was improperly submitted because it has no page numbering which is required to effectively discuss signature challenges. All 21 pages are fatally flawed. The first page of the signature section of Exhibit C is also flawed because the Witness did not indicate how many signatures were on his sworn Affidavit.

The pages allege to include 99 signatures of residents who are “qualified to vote for town officers” in the two towns. This is not true. At least 23 of the individuals are not registered voters in either town. An additional 14 signatures listed addresses that do not match the voter information from Sullivan County Board of Elections and NYSBOE. 15 signatures seem to have been written by an alternate person. There are additional challengeable signatures with errors that the person did not use their lawful signature or did not use their full name.

It is likely that there are maybe 52 qualified voter signatures, which is far below the 20% threshold required for the petition to be valid. It is clearly too small a number to indicate support to create a new municipal structure that would have jurisdiction over so many of the neighboring residents and parcels that would be absorbed by this Village. I request that this Proposal be denied for lack of a legally sufficient Petition.

Signature

Name

Complete Address

And, Join us on August 22 to make your voices heard!