Community should follow Lyon review carefully

To the Editor,

STLC, Inc. has received calls from the public about the State Environmental Quality Review Act Application (SEQRA) that was presented recently by LLC Liberty - E. Washington Corp. to the Bath Village Board. This application on the part of the LLC developers seeks to pave the way to demolish the historic landmark Dana Lyon School; change the zoning to commercial; and erect an Eckerd's drugstore.

What people are confused about is the following: The village board trustees (Becker, Glass, Havens, Skelly) unanimously agreed to merely accept the SEQRA application from the developers as their final submission. The trustees, by their vote, did not approve this application. It is now under serious review while in undergoes the public scrutiny and comment period which ends on January 19, 2007. So, please be sure to register your remarks to Mayor Wallace and the four Village Trustees long before The Public Comment deadline date of January 19, 2007.

For the community residents' information, when the National Trust for Historic Preservation's lawyer, Roberta Lane, read a copy of this SEQRA petition at her national headquarters in Washington, D.C., she immediately fired off a letter to the village board explaining why that application should clearly fail.

Alan J. Knauf, Esq. attorney for the Davenport-Waterman families and the Save-The-Lyon Commission also faxed to the Village Board at the December 12, 2006 meeting, evidence of lawsuits (he successfully prosecuted) with defective SEQRA applications, such as the one prepared for LLC Liberty - East Washington by Atty. Thomas Reed of Corning. The list is endless as to why the village board should not approve this SEQRA application.

Please continue to write, or call, Mayor Wallace and Trustees Becker, Glass, Havens, and Skelly with your support of preserving the Dana Lyon 1923 Addition.

For its part, the Save-the-Lyon Commission presently has a stay order in place on the Demolition Permit; an injunction is prepared to fax to Judge Furfure's office; if necessary; and beyond that, a possible notice of pendency on the Haverlingdonated property upon which the 1923 addition sits.

Please attend Bath Village and Bath Town meetings so that you can personally witness your local government at work. Bath village board meets on the third Monday of each month at 6 p.m. in the village board room. If the third Monday is a holiday, the meeting in held the very next day (Tuesday), same time, same place. The Bath town board meets on the second Monday of each month at 7 p.m. in the town board room. If that is a holiday, the same "next-day" rule persists.

Rosalie Niemczyk Bath