THOMPSON, NY — A referendum on the proposed village of Ateres went ahead Thursday following a last-minute court decision.

“At 2:48 this morning, we were served with an order to show cause for the election to go forward,” said William Rieber Jr., the Thompson supervisor, in a statement on January 18. Sullivan County Supreme Court Judge Stephan Schick ordered that the election be held that day.

Most of the 1.5-square-mile village, proposed by a Viznitz Hasidic community, would be located in Thompson, with a small portion in Fallsburg. Rieber and the Fallsburg supervisor, Michael Bensimon, had adjourned the vote a day before the early-morning order reversing it. 

When announcing the adjournment, Rieber said Ateres does not qualify under a new state law requiring that a village proposed for incorporation have a population of at least 2,000 full-time residents, not the 500 currently allowed. But Governor Kathy Hochul included a carve-out, not yet passed by the assembly, that excludes from the new law any proposed village whose referendum was on the docket by December. The Ateres referendum was scheduled last summer, leading the judge to keep the referendum on schedule.

Rieber said on January 18 that the votes would be counted immediately after the polls closed at 9 p.m. and “sequestered until a later date.”

“As ordered by the judge,” Rieber wrote, “the supervisors and town clerks will not be required to certify the election at this time.”

Although the vote is expected to go overwhelmingly against Ateres, it is not clear whether the referendum protections in the new law will apply in this case.

Bill tamps down village proliferation

Last summer, Rieber and the former Fallsburg supervisor, Katherine Rappaport, bowed to state law and agreed that Ateres complied with its requirements. “Many well-articulated objections were received over the course of the review period,” they said in a statement on September 8, 2023. “However, no qualitative or quantitative analysis is even allowed in the process under current NYS Law. Therefore, many of these objections, while full of merit, are not actual reasons for challenge based on the antiquated village law.”

They said it was “painfully obvious that the approximately 100+ year-old NYS statute governing village formations is in dire need of a re-write.”

“We are beyond the days of communities meeting at the local Grange to map out their future,” they said.

The supervisors also noted that the village of Mastic Beach was created in 2010 “only to be dissolved less than a year later, as the cost of expenses to run the village created a significant tax burden to village residents, since it was never adequately studied, because it was not required.”

The supervisors further said that, upon reviewing Census data, they noted the poverty level in areas where new villages have been incorporated, like Bloomingburg, 48.7 to 54.6 percent; Kaser, 60 percent; New Square, 53 percent; Kiryas Joel/Pine Tree, 40.5 percent; and Monsey CDP (Census designated place), 45.7 percent.

The bill was written by Senator James Skoufis of Orange County, where a village has been proposed for the town of Monroe.

“Village incorporation proposals such as Seven Springs in the Town of Monroe have been weaponized as political tools for major developers,” Skoufis said when introducing the bill. 

In addition to the population threshold, the bill requires a study of the interests of residents in any proposed village with regard to finances, services, and taxes, Skoufis says on his web page. Proposed villages would still be subject to referendum, with at least 20 percent of voters agreeing to begin proceedings. But, if the state controller finds fiscally unfavorable conditions for the proposed village, the petition will not move forward.

The bill's sponsor in the assembly is Fred Theile, chair of the Local Government Committee.