Monroe supervisor suggests that KJ form its own town or city
MONROE – Town Supervisor Harley Doles of Monroe has written to Kiryas Joel Mayor Abraham Wieder urging the village to become its own town or city.
“I believe it is time for our communities to party company,” Doles wrote to the mayor in a letter dated January 1, 2014 and obtained by MidHudsonNews.com.
By creating a separate town, it would create “the fence that would make us good neighbors and will usher in an era of neighborly goodwill, peace and tranquility between municipalities and in all of southern Orange County,” Doles wrote.
The Town of Monroe has some 52,000 residents, half of which live in Kiryas Joel. Residents of the village tend to vote in a block and Doles wrote that the last election “crystallized the deep divide that exists in the Town of Monroe and it is my job to address this issue head on.”
He said the lifestyles of both the town and village are “as American as apple pie and are perfectly legitimate.” Doles said that, “No elected official has the authority to dictate to anyone where they can or cannot live or whether they should vote or not. As such I believe that the creation of a ‘gap’ is the only way to bridge the gap and to restore peace in Monroe.”
Doles also proposed that the entire new Kiryas Joel entity join with its school district making each one’s boundaries coterminous with one another “thereby assuring that Kiryas Joel (town/city, village or school district) will have no financial or political impact whatsoever on its neighboring municipalities or school district.”
Creation of a new form of government in the village would require approvals from the Monroe Town Board, state legislature and governor, Doles said.
At the same time, the owners of 177 tax lots totaling 510 acres in the town adjacent to the village have petitioned the town and village boards for annexation seeking permission to break away from the Town of Monroe and become part of the Village of Kiryas Joel.
Some 300 people live within the land proposed for annexation.
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