Blooming Grove, NY

Sponsored by the Blooming

Town of Blooming Grove
6 Horton Road
Blooming Grove, NY 10914

South Blooming Grove - A state Supreme Court justice has declared it illegal for the village to charge a Hasidic group attorney fees for legal advice on the group's request to open a yeshiva at the old Lake Anne resort.

The decision by Judge Lewis Lubell is a setback for the village, which has been locked in fierce battles with Hasidic developers, who own the majority of undeveloped land - more than 800 acres - in the village. At least three lawsuits and one counter-lawsuit have been filed by Hasidic Jews and the village in the three years since the village was incorporated.

The most recently filed lawsuit argues that the incorporation of the village itself was an attempt to prevent the expansion of Hasidic communities in southern Orange County. That case has been moved to federal court and is pending.

The decision on legal fees involves the application of Sheri Torah, a Hasidic religious school that wants to turn the rundown clubhouse in Lake Anne into a religious school for boys.

Jim Sweeney, attorney for the school, said that the village charged his client $13,000 for legal advice provided by village special counsel Dennis Lynch of Nyack, and then asked for another $7,500 in legal fees to continue with the application. Lubell judged the village's fee policy to be too open-ended and "potentially unlimited" in the amount that could be charged. He noted that the costs for legal advice by the village "do not represent necessary expenditures, but rather convenience to the board for what in the end is its own decision-making responsibility."

The justice, however, allowed the village to continue with a counter-lawsuit that argues the clubhouse is on improperly subdivided land.

A Kings County Court - upholding the decision of a Brooklyn-based rabbinical court - allowed 50 acres of the Lake Anne property to be subdivided as part of a settlement among feuding Hasidic investors.

Lynch said the subdivision was illegal as it skirted the village's planning authority. "This is an end run around the environmental review process," he said.

jsullivan@th-record.com

BLOOMING GROVE - Animal shelter manager Kathy Forian has been fired because she brought her own pets to work and adopted dogs without approval, a shelter official said.

The termination is the second for Forian, who was fired from the Town of Monroe animal shelter three years ago after being accused of overpaying her daughter, who worked with her.

Forian struck a plea agreement in that case, just as she began working as animal control officer for Blooming Grove.

Rick Horn, Blooming Grove Humane Society president and a town councilman, said Forian did nothing criminal.

"We let her go because we found her performance was not up to expectations," he said.

Forian was promoted from animal control officer to shelter manager 18 months ago. She was placed on probation at her job on Feb. 16, when it was discovered that she was bringing her own animals to work - against the shelter board's wishes, Horn said.

It was later discovered that Forian adopted a dog without board approval, as required by shelter policy, and that she sometimes left dogs for an extended period of time in the Humane Society's van, Horn said.

"There was a trust issue," he said.

Her firing comes just after the town revised the conditions of its $73,000 contract with the shelter to include a limit on the number of cat rescues. Blooming Grove Supervisor Charlie Bohan said Forian's firing was in part because of the fact that the number of such rescues had gotten out of control.

Forian claimed that the shelter's problems, including its huge cat population, either existed before she got there or were beyond her ability to fix.

She defended her management, saying that the facility received several passing grades during surprise state inspections.

Horn acknowledged that Forian's failings might have resulted from her being "overwhelmed" at the busy shelter. He also stood up for her reputation as a tireless animal advocate.

"She is an excellent animal control person who knows her stuff," he said.

jsullivan@th-record.com