1925 order might shape current Bethel politics

By CHARLIE BUTERBAUGH

KAUNEONGA LAKE, NY — A decision made October 3, 1925 might influence Town of Bethel politics in the coming weeks.

Bethel Councilman Robert Blais is leading the push to investigate whether a 1925 order, which discontinued the town’s responsibility for a stretch of road near the Toronto Reservoir, would justify a decision to declare Town Road 62 an abandoned highway, thus eliminating Bethel residents’ recourse to the town as they fight to preserve the public’s right to use the road.

Town Clerk Rita Sheehan said she came across a box of deeds that contained the order as she was searching for documents related to another issue, and she brought it to the board’s attention.

At its June 24 meeting, the board authorized its attorney, Robert McEwan, to conduct a probe with assistance from a local title company and to assess the legitimacy of the historical document.

Councilman Richard Crumley challenged Blais and asked where the investigation was heading.

“What do we want to do, close the road?” Crumley asked.

He said the town maintained the road for over 10 years when he was superintendent of highways, and according to New York State Law, he said, the period of maintenance now serves as Bethel’s tacit adoption and ownership of the road.

“We might save ourselves some money if we look into that [tacit adoption] instead of the abandonment issue,” Crumley said.

The road of contention is a .78-mile stretch between a landowner’s gate and the Toronto Reservoir. Woodstone Lakes Development principal Steve Dubrovsky has argued that the stretch of road is his private land while the Smallwood Civic Association continues to cite a federal easement that should guarantee public access along the route.

For four months, the civic association has been asking the board to rescind its March 11 resolution, which recommended eliminating the access road by changing the federal license. The resolution argues that the expansion of the Moscow Road boat launch, in exchange, “better suits the needs of the citizens of the Town of Bethel than does the maintenance of the access route to the Toronto Dam Area.”

Councilman Harold Russel said, “It would make sense to have the attorney look into what Crumley is saying.”

Blais reiterated his desire to know whether the .78-mile stretch is a town road.

“If it isn’t, then we wouldn’t pay to fix it, and we would opt for the alternative,” Blais said. “The alternative” refers to Dubrovsky’s proposal to improve a town park at the Moscoe Road access in exchange for closure of the TR 62 access, which would limit boaters to only one way onto the water.

Several residents said the historical document had sidetracked the board, preventing members from discussing its response to the civic association’s protest against the March 11 resolution.

After the meeting, civic association corresponding secretary Bob Barrett said neither Town Road 62 nor Pine Grove Road are mentioned in the 1925 order of abandonment.

The order reads that the following road be discontinued: “Beginning in the center of the so-called Moscow Road, in the Town of Bethel, at a point directly west from the northwest corner of the residence of Lawrence Phillips and running thence in a general southerly and then in a general Easterly direction , a total distance of ten thousand, nine hundred (10,900) feet to a point in the center of said road, distant one hundred (100) feet westerly of the point where the line between Lots 39 and 40 of Great Lot No. 15 of the Hardenburgh Patent crosses said road, the road being described being of the width of two (2) rods….”

Barrett said Pine Grove Road and Moscow Road were crossroads at the time.