Your Award-Winning News Source for the Upper Delaware River Valley Region Since 1975
Vol. 41 No. 45
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NOVEMBER 5 - 11, 2015
Some New Yorkers scramble for new coverage Healthcare rug pulled out from under thousands By FRITZ MAYER
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LBANY, NY — Some of the most affordable health insurance plans to emerge in New York State after the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, became law were those created by Health Republic Insurance of New York (HRINY). People signed up with HRINY in large numbers, but now, the agencies that control the health insurance market are telling thousands of HRINY’s customers, including several at The River Reporter, that they must immediately find new coverage because their existing policies will be terminated at the end of November. About 200,000 individuals, some through small businesses, signed on to HRINY. The regulatory agencies are the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), the New York State of Health Marketplace (NYSOH), and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Back on September 25, the agencies determined that HRINY would Continued on page 3
Contributed photo
Health Republic Insurance of New York, the largest healthcare coop created by Obamacare is ceasing operations in part because of a lack of promised funding from Washington.
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$1.50
Special-use permit granted for summer camp Lodgings for staff families at issue
By FRITZ MAYER
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OWN OF BETHEL, NY — If a summer camp provides 100 beds for campers and 32 beds for staff members and their families, can it really be considered a summer camp, or is it some sort of hybrid combining a summer camp and a bungalow colony? That is one of the questions that has been involved in deliberations over a proposed summer camp and a former bungalow colony that has been empty for 20 years or so on Segar and Rosenberg Road in the Town of Bethel. At a Bethel planning board meeting on November 2, the board considered granting a special-use permit to allow a summer camp proposed by the United Talmudical Academy (UTA) to move forward. All bungalow colonies have been grandfathered by the town. They are not allowed to be expanded, and are all now considered nonconforming uses. Attorney Jay Zeiger, representing the camp, said he had analyzed the town’s definition of bungalow colony and “it’s clear what we’re operating is a camp for religious education with recreational” elements. Board member David Slater said to board chair Dan Gettel, “He claims it’s a summer camp; our zoning says they can’t have family members stay in the [facility], and it’s a zoning issue. It says ‘a summer camp shall not include temporary or permanent shelters—structures designed for use or occupancy by family members of the children who attend the camp or employees who work there.’” Zeiger said that law was not in effect when the project began, which has been in front of the planning board since at least 2014, and the law would not have an impact on the project because it had “significant vesting.” He also said he takes “significant issue” with the law, because “there’s no land-use benefit to that law.” He said the law, for example, would allow a rabbi and a counselor to be in the same building, but not a husband and wife. He said he considers that law to be “unconstitutional,” but that that doesn’t need to be argued in this case, be-
CURRENTS: Oh, the horror!
OUTDOORS: Cold-weather
Rocky, that is
boating tips
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TRR photo by Fritz Mayer
This is the entrance to a bungalow colony that has been vacant for some 20 years on Segar and Rosenberg Road, which is slated to be converted into a summer camp. cause the project already had significant vesting when the law was adopted. Slater responded that Zeiger was asking him to accept Zeiger’s interpretation of the town law, when the role of interpreting town law for the planning board properly belonged to the zoning board of appeals. Addressing another aspect of staff and their families, Gettel read into the record part of a letter from Zeiger, which said in part, “Staff will dine at least part of their time in their bungalows [as opposed to the dining hall] as confirmed by the state Department of Health.” Engineer Randy Wasson said the staff bungalows would be outfitted with refrigerators, sinks and microwaves but not ovens. Addressing another matter, Gettel said there was a “trust issue” with the project, which was holding up the process. He said, “Randy submits a letter tonight saying there was no occupancy [in the summer of 2015], but on July 17 of this year, you signed a petition to the Supreme Court saying that it was operated as a summer camp. Now, it can’t be both.” Continued on page 3
SPANNING 2 STATES, 4 COUNTIES, AND A RIVER THAT UNITES US
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