BETHEL - The owners of a restaurant and distillery and several neighbors have filed a lawsuit against a neighboring farmer for spreading what they say is a stinky mixture of egg shells and liquid duck manure near their property.
Stacy Cohen and Monte Sachs, who own the Dancing Cat Saloon and the Catskill Distilling Company, have been joined in the suit by Bethel Market Cafe owner Thomas O’Laughlin, Silvio Palaez, Laura Mariski and her mother Ophelia Singer.
They claim they’ve been harmed by the stench coming from the Hofstee Dairy Farm, located in an area zoned for agriculture along state Route 17B, and nearby land owned by the farmer, Peter Hofstee, according to the lawsuit.
They're asking Hofstee to not pile up any type of manure within 500 yards of their properties and to not stockpile the manure for more than 24 hours. They’re also asking Hofstee to not spread the manure on weekends or on any holidays from Memorial Day to Columbus Day.
Cohen and Sachs want unspecified compensation for the harm they claim has been done to the distillery’s business since Cohen said they began noticing the smell in July. Cohen said the smell from the manure drove away customers and brought in flies to the distillery and the neighboring restaurant during the summer.
The other residents who filed the lawsuit are also asking for compensation from Hofstee for intentionally ignoring their “rights to use and enjoy their respective properties.”
Mariski and Singer, who live on Dr. Duggan Road where Hofstee also owns property, say the smell is so bad they “cannot open the windows to their home or go outside in their yard.”
Cohen said the smell coming from the farm was something they never experienced in their first five years in business.
Hofstee couldn't be reached for comment Monday. But in September, he denied stockpiling the manure that was seen along the property line dividing the farm and the distillery. He also said he hadn’t changed his farming practices in the past 50 years.
So what we have here is a few city slickers who took it into their heads to move to the country, into an area zoned for agriculture, repeatedly taking the farmer, who has been farming there for half a century, to court because they don't like farm smells.
In a few years, they'll probably decide to live next to an airport and then sue because it's too noisy.
