Proposed Catskills Village of Ateres Hit with Lawsuit, Threatening its Incorporation

SULLIVAN COUNTY – The Viznitz community’s attempt to form a new upstate village in Sullivan County is facing legal hurdles, after being hit with a lawsuit filed by a pair of area residents whose homes would fall within the village’s proposed boundaries.

A petition filed on June 14th to create the Village of Ateres was signed by 99 local residents and states that the proposed area meets New York State incorporation requirements based on its size, population and the number of eligible voters.

Encompassing an area with a large population of Viznitz chasidism, Ateres would be located mostly within the Town of Thompson, Ateres in addition to some acreage within the Town of Fallsburg.

The creation of Ateres would allow for a local government that would be more responsive to the needs of the Chasidic community, which would include more sidewalks and street lights to enhance pedestrian safety.

But according to the Times Herald Record (www.bit.ly/4907n2k), residents Steven Rivela and John Reeves have filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court in Monticello against the incorporation plans charging that the petition lacks the required number of signatures. The lawsuit alleges that 13 signatures bear the names of unregistered voters, while nine others were flagged as potential forgeries.

The first public hearing on Ateres’ incorporation was held on August 3rd at the Viznitz yeshiva in Kiamesha Lake to ensure that the petition met state requirements, with a second hearing held approximately three weeks later.

An August post on the Fallsburg’s Future Facebook page expressed concerns about the 929 acre village, describing its irregularly-shaped map as “incomprehensible” and noting that all of the petition’s signers were Orthodox Jews who lived on six streets, an area comprising just a minute percentage of the acreage proposed to become part of Ateres.

A decision handed down by the Towns of Thompson and Fallsburg on September 7th said that while approximately 100 area residents expressed objections to the petition and 199 pages of written objections were received, the petition met all state requirements and was approved.

A joint statement released a short time later by Thompson Town Supervisor William Rieber Jr. and Fallsburg Supervisor Katherine Rappaport described the state incorporation law as “antiquated” and “in dire need of a rewrite.”

A pair of bills approved by the state legislature could raise the minimum number of residents needed to incorporate a village from 500 to 2,000. If signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul before the year’s end, the Ateres petition would no longer meet the state’s population requirement for the formation of a new village.