On March 19th, Town of Fallsburg Supervisor Steven Vegliante in Upstate New York issued an emergency declaration to suspend all certificates of occupancy for “all camps and seasonal communities” and prohibit their use within the town.

This emergency declaration came in response to noise on social media that Orthodox Jews are escaping the city and coming up to their summer homes and bringing along the virus. @NYGovCuomo struck down this emergency declaration a few days later.

On March 29th, the Supervisor issued a statement acknowledging the Governor's action and wrote that the township is looking forward to come up with a different solution "to protect our community and health system.”

On Sunday April 12th, the Supervisor apparently came up with the solution. Namely, limiting summer home owners from occupying their legally-owned, tax-paying, local economy-building properties, by redefining the definition of “seasonal properties.”

Until now, seasonal properties in Town of Fallsburg were permitted to be in use from April 1st through Dec 15th. The new time frame limits the use to June 1st - Sep 15th. This also means that properties can’t be used during Passover, Shavuos, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkos.

The Supervisor is using Covid-19 as an excuse to make this change via a Zoom session to be held today Monday afternoon at 5:55pm. No other legislation was apparently important enough for this township to conduct via zoom prior to this.

It is legal for governments to implement prudent policies to save lives. However when motives are bigoted and actions biased, it is a problem and illegal too. The action and words of township officials will clarify if it is the former or the latter. We will be watching.