By Eli Ruiz

BLOOMINGBURG — On September 30, residents of this tiny, rural southeastern Sullivan County village of about 400 residents will be voting on a measure to dissolve its government. If it passes, the village will be absorbed in and its administrative functions taken over by the Town of Mamakating.

Asked if he supported the referendum, Bloomingburg Mayor Frank Gerardi said simply, “Yes.”

He added, “It's going to be very very close… it's a hard decision and it really depends on the amount of voters that come out.”

And this isn't the first time Bloomingburgers, disillusioned with what many saw as an inept, self-serving board - some of whose members they accused of having conflicts of interest - have attempted to dissolve the village. They tried, unsuccessfully, back in October of 2012.

“About two years ago, residents gathered… a petition with a good number of signatures,” said Town of Mamakating Supervisor Bill Herrmann in a recent interview with the Democrat. “The petition was submitted to the Village Board, who rejected it, alleging invalid signatures. Of course, today we know that that was nonsense.”

“[The dissolution of Bloomingburg's government] could have been done two years ago,” lamented Herrmann. “Time has gone by and things have only gotten worse, so they decided to give it another shot… now there's a board willing to work with the residents of this village, to the extent of the law, for the betterment of the village.”

During a December 1, 2012 board meeting, residents learned that the initial dissolution attempt had failed, and in a November 12, 2012 letter signed by then Village Clerk Sue Berentsen and addressed to the Board of Trustees, Berentsen rejected the petition “as insufficient and otherwise defective for various reasons.”

“That first petition had quite a few signatures but it was denied by the clerk - the mayor's wife,” said Holly Roche, president of the Rural Community Coalition, in a recent interview.

The RCC was formed to block the plans of controversial developer Shalom Lamm, whose 396-unit development garnered approval from the former board, headed up by Mayor Mark Berentsen. Many now favoring the dissolution believe the old board was too accommodating to Lamm, whose projects have been tied up in court.

The municipal elections this past March brought an entire new ruling establishment to the village.

The second attempt to dissolve the village began in earnest, according to Roche, “In April when the new board took over... actually, it started the very next day [after the new board took over].”

“We [the RCC] were just getting started back then [in 2012], and who would have known we'd now be where we are today,” asked Roche. ““I think it's going to be an entirely different scenario this time around... we've grown a lot... we've learned a lot over the last two years.”

Before this past March's elections, Bloomingburg residents had to deal with a village government which did not hold meetings for months on end.

“People get that the village is small... we now at least have a board that has no conflicts of interest and has the interest of the residents of this village in mind,” Roche continued. “The only real difference in dissolving the village would be that we'd only be paying Town of Mamakating taxes, which we already do, so really it's beneficial.”

Herrmann agreed.

“The people in the village are still Mamakating residents,” he said. “As the supervisor I still have to serve them, and they do pay Mamakating taxes as well as village taxes so, really, nothing changes [if the village is dissolved] except that they won't have to pay village taxes anymore.”

And with NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo pushing for the consolidation of redundant governments, Bloomingburg, in August, received a state grant for $42,750 to help defray the cost of a study into the dissolution process.

“So now if the dissolution is voted in and occurs, the town can apply for a $50,000 grant, as can the village… so that this village dissolution will, actually cost absolutely nothing to taxpayers,” said Herrmann.

Both Herman and Roche, who strongly support the dissolution measure, are optimistic but cautious about next Tuesday's vote: “It's going to be close,” said Herrmann. “It's going to be close because we're keeping a close eye on the possibility of another voter fraud incident.”

Bloomingburg won a March court decision where plaintiffs alleged “ballot box stuffing” on the part of proponents of Lamm's project during the March municipal elections. With the successful challenge of 148 ballots, the new board was elected in what Roche described as “a landslide.”

“And though there are individual voters that are being challenged, it has to do with legal residency requirements... it has nothing to do with anything else - not racism, not people being biased or ‘anti-Semitic,'” Roche noted.

Though also optimistic about Tuesday's vote, Roche harbors a bit of disappointment: “I was really hoping that the dissolution would have been village initiated and it was not... but it was the citizens who did it, and I truly believe they want it... we'll have to see on the 30th.”

“We just hope that the people that are the true residents, the people who have lived here and invested here, are the ones who make the decision regarding the state of the village,” said Herrmann. “There is a very rural character to this area. We moved here not to be surrounded by high-density housing. Some people want to live in the city, some in the country, and that's why we moved here to raise our families and make lives for ourselves.”

After dissolution

The village hired the Labarge Group of Albany to write an interim report on the dissolution. According to the report:

"If the referendum passes… the Village Board will be required to develop and accept a complete plan of dissolution within 180 days. The Dissolution Plan will include the required elements of General Municipal Law Article 17-A, Title 3 §775, and will specify when the Village, as a separate government, will cease to exist; which municipal services will continue after dissolution; how the costs of those services will be paid for; a fiscal estimate of the cost of dissolution; how Village-owned assets will be transferred or disposed of; how any remaining liabilities and debts will be paid for following the entity's dissolution; and findings as to whether any local laws, ordinances, rules or regulations of the Village shall remain in effect after the effective date of the dissolution.

"Following the development and acceptance of this Dissolution Plan by the Village of Bloomingburg, the Village will facilitate a public hearing on the Dissolution Plan. Following the public hearing the Dissolution Plan will be finalized and adopted. Registered voters in the Village of Bloomingburg will then have an additional 45 days to petition for a permissive referendum on the Final Dissolution Plan. If a referendum containing signatures from not less than 25% of the registered voters of the Village is filed with the Village Clerk, a second vote will be held to determine whether the majority of Village voters approve implementation of the Final Dissolution Plan."