Mayor Jeff Kaplan, Village Manager Elliott Auerbach, Code Enforcement Officer/Building Inspector Brian Schug, met with two members of the Ellenridge Homeowners Association, and the developer Moses Braver (Ellenridge Holdings LLC) to review a number of outstanding problems and code violations that continue at the Ellenridge housing development, located off of Route 209 in Ellenville.

Among the items later discussed by Ellenville's board of trustees was the nineteen-year-old development's latest plans for one large water pressure booster station.

The previous developer, DLK, headed by Mike Gutterman and Kevin O'Sullivan, had gotten around this by installing small individual boosters in each home unit.

According to Schug, DLK had made the case that, "rather than construct the water booster station (in order to get people moved into the houses already built), let them put in individual units in each house."

But both the Ellenridge homeowners and the Village of Ellenville are continuing to push for one large booster station.

Schug says DLK had promised that once the initial phase of development was completed, they would install the pressure booster station.

Moses Braver bought the property from DLK in 2005 but says that DLK is still, "responsible for putting in the station. We have a contract, and we've had several meetings with the village and we have it in writing that they [DLK] have to do the booster pump, but they have continued with all kinds of delaying tactics."

Schug explained, "The water itself is part of our municipal water system. If you look at the water tank that provides the municipal water, the elevation of that neighborhood is close to the elevation of that tank. So there's not enough head pressure when that tank is full to put on the water itself to provide adequate flow to these units."

The larger booster unit DLK was mandated by the planning board to install is meant to service anywhere up to 300 townhouses. Of that number, only ten have been built in the newer, upper portion of the development.

After the October 22 Village board meeting, Republican Mayoral challenger Rubin Torres raised concerns about who would pay for the booster station and its upkeep.

Torres sited Section 1414c3 of the 1996 amendment to The Safe Water Drinking Act of 1974. Viewing Section 40-2.160: Public Water Supply Protection Performance Standard reads: "Every public water system in a municipality shall comply with a state sanitary code and provide a safe, adequate and esthetically pleasing supply of water for drinking and other domestic uses."

Each year the Ulster County Department of Health prepares a report of the public water systems that have violations during the previous year to satisfy the requirements of The Safe Water Drinking Act.

Schug said, "The Village's water is tested on a regular basis and I am sure is in compliance with the New York State Department of Health standards, the Ulster County Department of Health, and whatever federal EPA-designations there are for safe drinking water."

Torres believes, "Since it is the village's responsibility by law, if we are going to build a pump station to maintain pressure, shouldn't we not take that as a referendum to the taxpayers, whether or not they want to pay for this? I don't believe it should be an issue where this is being done as a favor for a developer."

Schug agreed that there would be some concern from village taxpayers that, "if you are doing this for the residents of Ellenridge, what additionally are you going to do for me.' "

Kaplan said he believes it is the right thing to do and appealed to the sense of common community good, which he described as, "a constant balancing act," adding that Ellenridge homeowners are, "paying their taxes and they should have the same rights, when someone has a problem with their water and sewer and their streets, as anyone else. I don't want to take over [the booster station] until we know it has been installed properly."

Schug agreed the village should take over the booster station once completed, suggesting it would be costly for the Ellenridge homeowners association to maintain it themselves.

"They would have to have an individual that is [trained and] certified by New York State to service water supplies. I think it is a nice gesture that the village should consider."

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