BLOOMINGBURG – A settlement between the developer Shalom Lamm and the Village of Bloomingburg and the Town of Mamakating was agreed upon and okayed last Friday, granting Lamm $2.9 million for his legal costs, to be paid out $1.305 million from the village's insurance carrier and $1.595 million from the town's insurance carrier.

At meetings held the afternoon of October 21 in Bloomingburg, the village board of trustees and the village planning board voted to accept the settlement, with mayor Russ Wood saying, "On the whole, this is in the best interest of the taxpayers. It's a good deal."

Mamakating supervisor Bill Herrmann, however, was far less sanguine, and read a statement outside the Bloomingburg village hall that noted, "The plaintiffs, and developer Shalom Lamm, have settled this lawsuit with the town of Mamakating's insurance carrier for a fraction of what they paid their lawyers to bring the suit. Shalom Lamm settled now to cut his losses because he knew the case was meritless."

Several Bloomingburg residents and members of the Rural Community Coalition on hand also objected to the payment of any money to the developer, and expressed their sentiments at various points during subsequent back-to-back meetings of the Bloomingburg village and planning boards.

If the agreement is now accepted by U.S. District Court judge Katherine Forrest, who was expected to rule next month on a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Lamm two years ago and allowed to proceed in a ruling last autumn, a potentially onerous and expensive trial would be avoided. Lamm alleged that the village and town were blocking aspects of his approved Chestnut Ridge town homes development project in an attempt to stop Hasidic Jews from moving into Bloomingburg.

Herrmann's prepared statement said, "The insurance carrier exercised their right to settle this case despite the Town's objections. The Town vehemently denies any wrongdoing and the settlement with the plaintiff states that there was no wrongdoing by the town."

The insurer, Argo US Inc, has a "no consent" clause in their contract with the town.

After Friday's announcement of the settlement, Lamm's attorney Steven Engel, of Dechert LLP, noted that, "The $2,900,000 settlement hopefully brings that sad chapter to an end, and it should remind the public that bigotry has no place in America. This agreement comes on the heels of an earlier settlement between Hasidic voters and the Sullivan County Board of Elections. That case alleged that the Board of Elections had wrongfully removed Hasidic Jews from the voter rolls and prevented many from voting, and resulted in the county paying $575,000 and accepting the appointment of a federal monitor. It is our hope that this ugly time is now behind us, and that all the residents of this beautiful region can live together in peace and mutual understanding."

The settlement draws to a close a number of outstanding lawsuits and appeals that Mamakating had filed as further attempts to stop Chestnut Ridge. But once again Herrmann fired back, even though advocates for Lamm's side said such moves could jeopardize the settlement.

"This disgraceful, baseless lawsuit sought to intimidate and distract the Town Board's attention from delivering government services to the community," the supervisor said. "This lawsuit was conceived by Lamm and carried out by exploiting a group of people to deflect from his attempts to develop land without proper approvals. It was a shameful attempt to use the First Amendment as a sword against the good people of Mamakating and debase the Amendment's intent to be a shield against discrimination."

As a final word, Herrmann — who had previously hired a Washington, D.C. public relations firm to help make its case against Lamm, including the filing of a later-dismissed racketeering case against the developer — ended by noting the presence of two alleged FBI agents at Friday's announcement session in Bloomingburg and pledging the town's cooperation in whatever case they might be building.