Spring Glen, NY – A Hasidic group that was forced out of the former Homowack Lodge faces fines of up to $19,500 for allowing children to live in filthy and dangerous conditions for five weeks, the Times Herald-Record has learned.
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Congregation Bais Trana, based in the Monsey area of Rockland County, evacuated a girls camp in August after a five-week standoff with state Department of Health and Town of Mamakating officials.
The group faces a maximum penalty of $2,000 for each of nine violations and a maximum of $250 for six others. DOH has offered to settle the case for $12, 650, records indicate.
“They have been cited in the past,” said Mark Knudsen, DOH district director, Monday. “As I recall, they settled all the cases prior to the hearing. All the respondents are offered an opportunity to settle a case without a hearing, similar to plea bargaining.”
According to citation reports and court records, children were playing outside without supervision and used an indoor swimming pool that had unsafe water quality.
A 6-foot-tall mound of kitchen waste was piled next to an overflowing dumpster. Toxic cleaning materials were kept in unlocked storage rooms in the dorms and old mattresses and other debris were jammed into the basement of one of the dorms.
Fire doors were propped open with garbage cans, chairs and buckets. Exit doors were blocked or locked. Water was leaking over exposed electrical boxes and fixtures. A well-head was submerged in water, threatening a supply of potable water.
DOH asked the group to leave voluntarily and later sought a commissioner’s order and then a court order forcing them out on Aug. 9. Roughly 265 girls and 35 families were staying there.
Knudsen said the camp can negotiate a lesser settlement payment if they argue convincingly that the proposed penalties are excessively harsh.
“Our intention was not to fine then, it was to vacate the property,” Knudsen said.
As a condition of a settlement, the congregation would have to agree not to occupy the buildings unless they are brought up to state standards.
In a separate action in Supreme Court, the state Attorney General’s Office is seeking a permanent injunction that would prevent the camp from using the properties.
DOH has scheduled an administrative hearing in Monticello for Sept. 23.
It shoould never have taken several weeks for the Skver to vacate the property. Now they pay nearly $20,000 to Sullivan county–money that could have paid for meals for several hundred meals for the poor for the yamim naroim. Even worse, the arrogant example they displayed will make it more difficult for other yiddeshe schools and camps to get approvals for zoning or land use permits.
Now that we know what the ‘unsafe’ conditions were, we can understand why Skver put up a fight. There was no violation for anything structural and everything cited is easily fixable and was fixed.
The hazards listed were in no way an immediate threat to campers. There was no threat of building collapses or immediate health concerns, regardless of what we were told in the press.
It is obvious this was a witchhunt and not up to the par of requiring immediate evacuation.
Based on what the press would have you believe, you would expect severe enviromental, structural, and food supply issues. You would expect buckling beams, rodent infestation, exposed electric, unoperable sewers, no fire extinguisher systems, and other such hazards.
But alas we see that no!!!
I hope all those that criticized skver for ‘endangering’ the kids will ask mechila.
are there still people who still think this is all made up and nonsense because of antisemitism. or have you finally seen the light that is most likely was true
They really did clean up the place with heroic efforts, and didn’t break any laws. When officially required to leave, they did. The group made a major improvement from when the hotel was operating and the authorities were turning a blind eye. But the charge of ‘playing unsupervised’? Aren’t the authorities being a bit aggressive with that one? And who doesn’t have cleaning products in their home? How is it that anti-Jewish hatred propagates in this forum so easily?
Number 3 has a point. The government frequently exaggerates health violations. I’ve always been sympathetic to Skver in reading about this situation. If the government went into anyone’s home, they would find violations. Number 6, nobody is saying there weren’t violations, but the question is, How serious? How imminent was the threatening condition of unclean water? It also takes a lot of money to correct these violations, which religious organizations don’t always have.
Obviously people commenting on the violations as if Skver is being picked on knowsnothing about camps. The state is very strict and inspects facilities every year and will cite it even for a burned out exit sign bulb.
if this is all thery found then Skver was right all along . I apologize to them
#10 –what a chutzpah to say that this is all. WOuld you want your kids living in such an environment, with lock fire doors, and pools with quesitonable water quality? Did you even bother reading through the article before writing your comment?