WAWARSING – The Wawarsing Planning Board meeting on September 19 saw multiple public hearings for a range of projects — from solar farms to a food truck.

The meeting began with a quick public hearing on Philip Coombe III's application for a subdivision of property on South Hill Road, east of Black Jack Road. The subdivision is of 130 acres on the upper side of the road and 90 acres on the lower side. The board closed the public hearing, took lead agency and approved the subdivision.

Three solar farm applications were on the agenda — all Cypress Creek-related contracts. The Kamback project had a continuing public hearing, while Reisender Solar and Frog Hollow Solar were new public hearings. The Kamback project is off Sportsman's Road in Napanoch. The Reisender property is on Weiner Road. The Frog Hollow project is at 208 Frog Hollow Road.

Cypress Creek representatives will be meeting with Ulster County Planning to discuss comments and a negative review. All are for solar arrays which will feed electricity into the grid maintained by Central Hudson. There are visual surveys being undertaken to ascertain that the arrays will not be visible from surrounding roads. All three public hearings will continue to October. Planning Board Chair James Dolaway said that in relation to the Frog Hollow project he would like to see the applicant clean up the old swimming pool and junk now disfiguring the view of the property from the road. The application by Carmen Oquendo and Eric Abraham for a food truck, titled "Carmen's Sabor Latino" on the corner of Clinton Avenue and Route 209 (next to Ricke Len's Country Restaurant), sparked a long discussion during their public hearing. A neighboring businessman, who owns the strip mall on the Walmart site, was concerned that a "trailer" would not look good in that area. Abraham sought to reassure him, and the board, that while it would be a trailer, it would be an attractive, 24-foot-long trailer permanently placed on the site. It would go on a concrete slab and be skirted and decorated in an attractive way. He added that this was just the beginning, and that eventually, they would probably seek to construct a permanent, concrete building on the site for their restaurant.

The "skin" on the trailer was a focus for Paul Lonstein, board member. He was concerned that it not be too "bold" or garish. Fellow board member John Constable said that anything could be done if it was done with decorum. Douglas Hart and Lonstein pressed for renderings of what the trailer would look like. Frank Wood added a different view by noting that just a mile down the road, the White Wolf restaurant usually has a trailer parked out front, in part as an advertisement.

The site is now being prepared for the trailer restaurant. Trees are being removed and the land levelled. Dolaway said next steps would wait until the signage had been developed and a rendering of what it would look like had been presented. The public hearing will continue.

An application by Jordan Heller of Greene Lumber Company for a selective timber harvest on property owned by Donald and Helen Exner brought the sometime confusing arena of land surveying and competing maps into play.

During the public hearing, Debbie Schoonmaker, who owns neighboring property, explained that part of the Exner property is disputed. In fact, there exists a complex dispute over this land, which lies southeast of Geiger Road, near the Beer Kill, where it flows into the northern end of Cape Pond. The area that Heller wishes to log may, or may not, spill over into the disputed area.

After a somewhat confusing discussion, with the Schoonmaker's poring over different maps, it was found that while there exist three survey maps of the site, they all differ on certain details of the property lines. Schoonmaker said, "I used to think surveying was an exact science, but now I know that it is just a professional opinion."

Dolaway said that a detailed plan of exactly where the planned logging would take place was required. Constable said it was necessary for the logging to stay at least 50 feet away from the disputed area. Planning Board Attorney Mary Lou Christiana, suggested that the property owners needed to talk to each other and work this out before progress could be made. Debbie Schoonmaker appeared to agree and said she wanted to sit down with the Exner's and work it out. "It goes back to the 1970s, we need to settle it." The public hearing will continue next month.