No Soliciting

By Edie Johnson
SOUTH BLOOMING GROVE — Residents is South Blooming Grove gave their enthusiastic support this week to a proposed anti-solicitation law that’s meant to protect people from unwanted proposals to purchase their homes.

The 20-page document, penned by the village’s land use/annexation lawsuit attorney Dennis Lynch, has both “belt and suspenders” as any violators who harass or bribe the public with unsolicited offers will have one warning and can then be charged with a misdemeanor.

The onus on residents is to post a visible notice on their property reading: “No Solicitation.”

The police department is responsible for enforcement and following up on complaints that need to be forwarded for court hearings.

Any person who violates any term or provision of this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of up to $1,000 and or a jail sentence of up to six months.

The same legislation will likely be used for a similar law in the Town of Blooming Grove, which has received an increasing number of complaints of realty harassment in recent weeks. Officials in the Town of Woobury may also consider it.

“It’s a matter of protecting the rights of people to buy and sell homes,” Lynch said, “but also protecting the rights of privacy for residents as well.”

Lynch said that the Village of South Blooming Grove is the first to enact this toughest anti-solicitation law in the state. It is added to an existing law that requires vendors to register and wear an identification badge.

But in recent months, realtors have flooded residents with phone calls and flyers that offer “We have a buyer for your home.” Some offers also suggest a bribe or a gift as an inducement, which Lynch described as “deceptive realty techniques.”

Lynch has forwarded 40 official complaints to the New York State’s Attorney and the Department of Justice. These include charges of illegal housing modifications either without a permit or continued building violations, illegal piles of trash along streets after middle-of-the-night moves and new ads that promise “Potential Mother-Daughter Apartments.”

These ads, Mayor Rob Jeroloman said, require a complex process that applicants have to go through for an accessory dwelling permit, and he stated that there are currently only two of those that have been permitted and one that is pending.

Accessory dwellings are also charged a double rate for water, sewer and garbage.

Questions arose about how the no solicitation law would be implemented. U.S. Postal, FedEx, UPS or similar delivery services would not be affected. Political campaigners also are exempt.

Lynch said it would be up to the resident to inform any “door-to-door” people that they did not want them coming back. If the solicitor does not respond to the first warning, the resident would then have the option to call the police and file a formal complaint that would result in a court appearance. Political campaigners are exempt, under the 2nd amendment clause.

Rabbi Joel Loeb and his fellow members of the Monroe Committee for Peace and Harmony were again present to lend their support to the villagers. “We pray night and day only for peace with our neighbors,” Loeb said. “We are terribly ashamed of the threats by Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedayle Szegedin. We suffer from them, too.”

In a statement published in The Photo News, Szegedin urged Orange County and the coalition of municipalities opposed to the annexation of property from the unincorporated portion of the Town of Monroe into the Village of Kiryas Joel to halt their efforts.

“You can prevent this mass overflow if you stop fighting all the annexation, but time is running out,” Szegedin wrote. “The overflow move-out in KJ is going forward in full speed to a degree I have never seen.”

He identified areas in Monroe, Blooming Grove and Woodbury where residents of Kiryas Joel are seeking homes.

He added the natural growth of the Hasidic residents of Kiryas Joel is between 250 and 300 new marriages each year, meaning each new married couple would need an apartment or home.

Residents also expressed concern about water given the purchase of a 90-acre lot behind the Sunoco station and the pending project at Lake Anne (now being called Clove Wood Project) for high density housing. People also expressed concern about an increase of traffic, particularly bus traffic, on Route 208, which was closed for several hours following a recent accident.

Jeroloman reassured residents that water is being monitored very closely.

Lynch added: “At best it is premature to assume that there are going to be a lot of new homes.”

Asked about the complaint of vandalism at the Lake Anne test wells, he said that at this time there is no evidence that it was a bias crime. “There has been vandalism at that site for years and years, including a murder at one time,” he said. “It would be best to wait for factual findings before jumping to any conclusion.”